Is Mexico America

With the controversy over Arizona's immigration law new focus has been placed on America's relationship with its neighbor south of the border, especially as Mexican President Felipe Calderon charged the new law with being the first volley in a campaign of "intolerance," "hate," "discrimination," and "abuse." Statements such as these, usually ignored by Washington policy elites, are gaining more notice in the wake of recent events.

It has long been an unquestioned facet of US-Mexico relations that the government in Mexico City is among America's staunchest allies. The degree to which this is the case is indicated by the fact that even conservatives take this as a given. Policy wonks routinely state that the US must maintain 'strong ties' with Mexico even as it continually takes hostile positions toward Uncle Sam. This largely unknown aspect of America's relationship with its southern neighbor should be better known.

Unsupportive 'Ally'

Though overlooked by most, US-Mexican difficulties are nothing new:

On September 11th, 2002, then President Vicente Fox chose the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks to pull out of the Rio Treaty, which obligates all Organization of American States members to come to each other's aid in the event any of them are attacked. Both Mexico and the US are members of the OAS.

Mexico has long been friendly with the Castro brothers in Cuba, categorically rejecting American efforts to contain the Communist island. This is a rather strange posture for a supposed beacon of democratic normalcy in Latin America; particularly given its thorny effect on its relationship with its supposedly closest ally, the United States.

Even more telling are the comments of former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda, who used Swiftian language in detailing how he'd like to see smaller states contain American foreign policy. In November 2003 he said, "I very much like the metaphor of Gulliver, of ensnarling the giant. Tying it up, with nails, with thread, with 20,000 nets that bog it down..."

Is this the language of Mexico City or of Caracas, Pyongyang, and Tehran?

The UN Record

Patriotic Americans have been rightly perturbed by the conduct of its French allies over the years, particularly in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Protests went so far as to include furious denunciations, boycotts, and the now infamous 'Freedom fries'. The spotlight centered particularly on France's conduct at the United Nations in dealing with the use of force against Saddam Hussein. A closer look at the habits of Mexico at the UN though makes France seem positively benevolent by comparison. Indeed, what is not commonly known is that Mexico even supported the French in the Iraq matter.

A 2004 US State Department report on voting practices in the UN General Assembly is revealing. It deals with the frequency with which the nations of the world vote with the United States. This sort of assessment has long been regarded as an important benchmark of a nation's attitude toward the US and has even been said to be a focus of US influence in providing aid. Some results are surprising. Who, for example, would figure Palau to be America's staunchest ally in the UN? Some are predictable - North Korea votes with the US a little over 3% of the time. Others, such as Canada (50%), are unacceptably low, but they do fall within the general range of expected support by UN standards. Some US 'allies', such as Saudi Arabia, fall incredibly low (7% in the KSA's case), which should be cause for a reappraisal of policy toward such countries. What will surprise many though is the record of Mexico.

Mexico votes with the US in the UN General Assembly all of 23% of the time, which puts it behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo, run by ex-Marxist strongman Laurent Kabila's son, Joseph. Even the reviled French badly outpace America's Mexican 'friends'. They vote with America over 54% of the time.

Given the attitude of Mexicans, the United States should begin thinking twice about its posture toward Mexico. At this point, treating it as a hostile regime might not be too far-fetched. What is certain is that more action must be taken with regards to border security, illegal inflow, and drug cartels. The American people have suffered too long under Mexican encroachments. They demand better, and they deserve better.