Mexico's Crises

"Mexico is facing two crises right now . There’s the situation with Trump and the United States, but then there’s an internal crisis. Gas prices, corruption, the degradation of institutions."
"[While Mexicans are upset over the Trump messages the price of gas] gets Mexicans into the streets  [to march in protest]."
Lorenzo Meyer,  Mexican historian

"I’d like to stand up and have my voice heard [by the U.S. and Mexico] as a migrant worker, [but there’s more outrage currently around issues like gas prices]."
"The thing is, if people in my community can’t go to work legally in the U.S. and send back remittances, or if there are mass deportations from the U.S., people will return here and see there is no work. There is no way to make money. The price of gas won’t matter if no one has any money."
Adareli Ponce, migrant worker, Hidalgo state 

Henry Romero/Reuters   Demonstrators march against a \fuel price hike in Mexico City, January 31, 2017

But if the United States and particularly under its new president, is concerned about the presence of millions of illegal migrants, and is focusing on Mexico as a source of much of the illegal presence as underground workers whose presence is a boon to the economy, despite their undocumented status, complicated by the fact that many of those illegals have settled in the U.S. and lived there for decades, often longer; raise families whose children know no other country, for whom Mexico is foreign, there is another, ignored reality, that Mexico itself is struggling to cope with an influx of migrants.

"It's worrying us. How Mexico can handle that [Haitian, Central American and Cuban migrants] is going to be a whole new area of concern. I don't think the absorptive capacity is there."
Christopher Gascon, chief, Mexico office for the International Organization for Migration

Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Haitian migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, wait in line to get appointments with American immigration officials.

Shelters crowded with Haitian migrants and Cubans have been popping up in Tijuana, Mexico in churches, community centres, and wherever else homeless people can be sheltered in temporary accommodations on their arrival in Mexico, planning to go on to the United States. In Mexico, they await the opportunity to persuade U.S. visa officers to grant them the visas they need to enter America. The city is a crossroads at the border, crammed with so many migrants private citizens have taken to opening their doors, to feed, clothe and house them.

Now that President Trump has issued directives that the border between America and Mexico is to be tightened and that immigration is being restricted while deportations will be stepped up, a new crisis is emerging in towns and cities along the border throughout Mexico. People have been arriving steadily from Central America in flight from violence and poverty. Close to 409,000 people were apprehended as they attempted to cross the southwestern border illegally last year into the United States.

Earlier, the Obama administration had altered American policy, contributing to the desperate backlog of Haitian migrants, along with Cubans, thousands of whom had been stranded in Mexico and Central America when the previous (Obama) administration decided to end the policy favouring Cuban entry into the United States. While Cubans had been welcomed if they made the journey across land to the U.S. those who made the journey by sea were regularly repatriated. Now, however, Cubans must obtain a visa before entry, just like anyone from anywhere else in the world wishing entry to the U.S.

That change in a longstanding policy has resulted in thousands of Cubans left stranded. The situation for Mexico, a country struggling on a number of fronts, now hit with the threat of a massive tariff of goods exported to the United States, to pay for a restraining wall Mexico abhors and the United States' new president favours, has seen between 400,000 and 500,000 undocumented migrants transit every year through the country, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Haitians experienced few problems crossing into the United States, for quite a while, since U.S. authorities permitted undocumented Haitians to enter under the umbrella of a  humanitarian provision recognizing the 2010 earthquake disaster and resulting upheaval. They would wait for weeks for appointments scheduled with U.S border officials. Until the Obama administration in September announced its intention of resuming deportation of Haitians to dissuade more Haitians from undertaking the migration.

But the migration route into Mexico has widened; not only from Haiti, but from India, Bangladesh and parts of Africa — all of them intending to enter the U.S. Baja California saw 15,000 migrants coming from outside Latin America pass through in 2016, five times greater than the number in 2015.
Many of the migrants chose the long, arduous and dangerous route to Mexico as an alternative to the equally difficult passage to Europe, crowded now with refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

The sounds of French and Haitian creole mix with Spanish and English in Tijuana's shelters which a year ago were filled with migrants from Central America and Mexicans recently deported from the U.S.   Photo by Genaro Molino

"Lord High Badass of Canada"

"Though I'm honoured to think [you're] excited about me, I wish and hope you realize it's about the entire team that performed very well on that day."
"This is not about me. This is about the team of Commons security services."
"This is not an issue just for security, this is everybody's issue and how we deal with this is by everybody, all the citizens, working together with their local police, their national police to ensure we have a safe society."
"I think that is accomplished by respecting the dignity of people."
Canadian House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers

"I'm not sure [Mr. Vickers] has changed my impression of Canada overall. I think for us down here [U.S.] Canada has a more muted version of the [United Kingdom's] mix of archaic costumes and vaguely medieval honorific titles and all that. Which is kind of quaint and a little odd to us. But this was an example of real steel under what can seem like foppery. Almost a bit Bond-like in the understatedness with which Vickers handled the whole thing ... and then his all-business attitude after the fact."
Josh Marshall, editor/publisher Talking Points Memo, U.S. political website

"This terror attack in Ottawa proves, once again, that Islamic radical terrorism has no limits and respects no borders."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"He conforms to that Canadian stereotype of excessive modesty."
"I'm glad we have a public servant who does his job, even does it on the heroic scale that he did that morning, and then says 'I'm just a servant of the people'. [The notion that Canadians are inherently formidable] probably only a story that we tell ourselves. But I'm glad to see it confirmed from time to time."
Canadian historian Christopher Moore

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld   Prime Minister Stephen Harper shakes hands with as Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers in the House of Commons on Thursday October 23, 2014 in Ottawa. The House of Commons is back in action, kicked off by an exhilarating show of support for the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, who was among those who opened fire Wednesday on the gunman who stormed Parliament Hill.

When, on becoming aware through the courageous action of another Parliament Hill security guard who, unarmed, had taken it upon himself at his entry to tackle the gunman who stormed Ottawa's Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings after shooting Corporal Nathan Cirillo in the back as he stood ceremonial guard over the tomb of the Unknown Soldier before the National Cenotaph, Sergeant-at-Arms Vickers, a former RCMP member, ducked into his office to retrieve his 9mm handgun.

He faced down the intruder in the main corridor of the Centre Block and along with other members of the Parliamentary security team, shot the man to death. Then calmly informed the gathered-in-hiding Conservative caucus that the threat had been disarmed. Parliament Hill and its environs, along with nearby areas remained on lockdown for much of that day. Everyone was in shock over the unprecedented attack on Parliament following the murder of a Canadian reservist.

The Prime Minister was in a meeting just off the corridor that the gunman had stormed. The following day Mr, Vickers appeared in Parliament, unruffled, in his traditional ceremonial dress, mace in hand, prepared to conduct his daily ceremonial role ushering in Parliamentary procedures. Then and there he was roundly applauded and lauded for his cool-headed response to a very real threat to Canadian democracy.

Visiting Israel to attend an international security conference representing a trip long planned, he was feted in the Israeli Knesset for his actions. There, he was singled out for applause and appreciation of his modesty and action in a time of need.

Israel knows all about stoicism, military competence, diplomatic niceties and the will to survive leading to vigilance and the courage to confront those whose goal is to destroy its presence. It exists in a sea of ill-will and attacks. It has assumed its rightful place in a geography where once in Biblical times and long since Jews had always lived, and where their fabled heritage still resonates.

Chaim Tzach/Government Press Office    The House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers met Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.