Note: With this letter I'm trying to encourage civil society to be a more active player in determining our social lives. Also, I hope to persuade Fox to change the economic priorities of his administration. Please feel free to disseminate the letter.

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Open letter to President Fox

The Honorable President Fox:

This is a historic moment, not only for Mexico, but for the entire world, and for the species homo sapiens. We must find the answer to the most important question: How can we discover the road to a future for humanity? How can we survive? At this historic moment, great popular forces in Mexico have made an opening towards the future, as a result of which you have the opportunity to occupy a position of great importance in the international world as a leader towards the future of humanity. You can become a leader not only of the civil society that is now growing here in Mexico but also of the popular forces that exist in the entire world of Latin American.

At this historic moment, without any doubt, humanity has the capability to change profoundly all the conditions of nature. For example, at the submicroscopic scale there is the possibility of manipulating genetic material, the nucleus of all living things. And, at the macroscopic scale, which includes the world scale, humankind has unfortunately caused many disasters, for example:
    a) the devastating erradication of forests with consequent erosion of soil, that is, the transformation of jungles into deserts, and the climatic changes this causes.
    b) the use of chemical substances that act to increase the level of lethal ultraviolet radiation that covers the major part of the earth's surface.

The supreme tragedy of our time combines two aspects of reality: a) the living world is now being exterminated; b) also, there is extreme suffering of thousands of millions of poor people. The tragedy is, precisely, that neither the destruction nor the suffering is necessary. They are not consequences of laws inherent in nature. One as much as the other, that is, the destruction and the suffering, have been creations of so-called "Western Civilization", which has come to dominate almost all the world and its social organization.

The popular forces which, finally, have shattered the supreme power of the PRI, give us an example, one more time, that the people of Mexico have a fervent desire to attain better ways of living. The people of Mexico understand that the great tragedy of extreme suffering and ecological destruction is caused socially, and therefore is a tragedy that can be avoided. For this reason, Mr. Fox, you are the President of the Republic for this six-year term. However, your presidential tenure will be a very dangerous and very critical time for Mexican men and women and for the rest of humanity. In many other parts of the world there are the same popular forces that exist in Mexico. There is the same understanding that the great tragedy of extreme suffering and ecological destruction can be avoided, as is demonstrated, for example, by the gigantic international mobilizations that protest against the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, etc.

An international civil society is now forming. Many local grassroots groups, in various countries, are currrently linking together by means of modern communications. This new international civil society is trying to gain a strong global voice, and thereby to be able to reclaim the right of all humanity to live in peace and with dignity. Confronted with the rapid rise of this international civil society are the forces of giant capital. These forces, wielded by the nation-states, utilize repression, trying to maintain the status quo: that is to say, the dominance of force, of coercive power, of wealth. Because of that, the conflict is surging. There lies the danger.

Of course, the most powerful forces in the service of giant capital are the armed forces of the United States. At this moment, that country is the most powerful in the entire world. Never before in history was any nation-state so powerful. All its forces are ready to prevent any initiative to put an end to the maldistribution of wealth in the world. This maldistribution is indeed a great injustice created by the system of economic globalization, that is to say, it is a great injustice produced by historical capitalism.

The first priority of the United States is to maintain the status quo. That country bathes in wealth, stripping their natural resources from other parts of the world, and enjoying their products made by cheap hand labor. Therefore, the United States "must" maintain the poverty of the majority of Latin American countries, and specifically that of Mexico. Consequently, Mr. Fox, your initiative to renegociate the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada was rejected. That occurred when you visited Canada some weeks before your inauguration as president of Mexico. Also, in the United States, your proposal for free movement of people across the border was rejected. The wellbeing of Mexican men and women will never be possible as long as Mexico tries to conform itself to the system of global capitalism. Therefore, your attempt to fight poverty will not be sufficient without a profound change in the economic priorities of your government. And here you confront the danger. Here is the Achilles' heel of your six-year presidential term.

The danger exists at two levels, national and international. Within Mexico there are many forces of the status quo; big businessmen, drug cartels, multimillionaires, political groups who desire above all to recover political power and who want the initiatives of your administration to be a disaster, and other retrograde interests. The traditional political system in Mexico will not help to fight these forces; on the contrary, this system is a suffocating jungle in which, if you lack a non-traditional strategy, you will be gobbled up. However, there now exists in Mexico a different force, a different progressive force that was born from the new understanding and awakening that took place with the earthquake of 1985, when it became evident that the government, that is to say the PRI government, was incapable of facing and resolving real problems. This force grew and gradually matured so as to confront and resolve real problems, and finally, on July 2, 2000, the day came when, with explosive power, the scream Enough! resounded.

A year ago, nobody had thought a political explosion of such power was possible, and now, it is part of history. The opportunity exists for an unprecedented complete mobilization of civil society in the interest of the government in this six-year term, the term of your government. The combined force of the federal government in alliance with civil society would be sufficient to maintain progressive policies, policies that would aid the largest number of Mexican men and women, especially the poor. With this collaboration, this working together, there would be a veritable explosion of creative forces throughout the country, a true re-creation of Mexico.

But, the danger at the international level remains. Each time in the history of Latin America, when the government of a country tried to make a fundamental change for the real wellbeing of all the people, it was faced with intervention by the United States. The culture of greed that of course still predominates in the United States, and is clearly present in the forces of global capitalism, will not let any country "outside of the First World" provide assistance for the development and wellbeing of its own people. We recall how easily the United States intervened in these instances and at these times: Mohammad Mossedegh in Iran in 1953, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania in 1962, Michael Manley in Jamaica in 1972 (and 1992), Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in 1979, Maurice Bishop in Granada in 1983, Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti in 1991, Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1994, etc.

In order to stop, to put an end to the United States robbing Mexico (and the other Latin American countries), it's necessary to have a form of mutual aid among all the societies of Latin America (societies with a total population of 517.3 millions). That way they would be able to gain independence from the tyranny of global capitalism and from the avarice of the United States and of the other rich countries. The combined natural resources of the Latinamerican countries are immense: resources of energy, agriculture and livestock, water, forests, resources of biodiversity, minerals, industries, cultural resources and above all human resources: there is the spirit, ability, energy and generosity of the people. The myth that development of the so-called "Third World" depends on the "aid" of the "First World" is false. It is totally false.

Popular movements throughout Latin America will continue to grow rapidly because of the conditions imposed by the programs of so-called "structural adjustment" of the global financial organizations. These conditions, of course, will continue generating world-wide misery. There is no possibility that Mexico or other Latin American countries can avoid that impoverishment, unless they break the chains of global capitalism. Of course the majority of people in all Latin American countries would benefit if those chains could be broken. Here is the opening to the future, here is the historic opening. Stimulate the development of civil society throughout Latin America, unify Mexico with the other countries of Latin America with a pact of mutual aid in all areas: economic, food independence, etc. Mexico is not the small island of Grenada in the Caribbean, nor is it Panama. For this reason, and under these circumstances, the United States would not dare to attack Mexico with its armed forces. Therefore, it is necessary that Mexico and the other countries of Latin America unite; unified they will be able to change history, for the wellbeing of homo sapiens and of the biosphere.

With hope, always.
Please accept my cordial greetings.

Name______________________________________________

Nationality (if other than Mexican)______________________

Occupation__________________________________________

Address (State, Country)______________________________

Date_______________________________________________

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Use the letter as is or modify it to conform with your understanding of the reality that Mexico is facing, and send your opinion to:

      Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
      Presidente de la República
      Palacio Nacional
      06067 México DF, Mexico
            Fax: 5-515-4783

If you want to contact me,   george.salzman@umb.edu,   Oaxaca, January 19, 2001

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