Rebelené Press Vol. 1 No. 1
August 2019
Members of Mexican community confront AMLO’s representative Demand a voice at the New School University Forum in NYC The concluding event of a series of “community consultations” around the US took place at the New School University in New York City on April 13th, 2019. Organized by the transnational governmental organization IME, which “represents” Mexican Nationals outside of MX with the intention to engage the immigrant population that in numbers represent close to 28 Billion dollars in remittances to Mexico, surpassing 18.5 Billion dollars made in oil exports, according to the Bank of Mexico data on foreign income. In New York, things got off to a bad start when a Mexican citizen was denied entry by Roberto Valdovinos, Director of SRE, aided by members of the Morena Committee. The altercation was live streamed by Committee members and the citizen. The forum was controlled and structured in a way that left very little room for dialogue. The public was welcomed and informed that they would have to choose between three working groups where they would have 2 minutes to give their proposals aloud and write them down on a paper that would be contained in boxes until sorted and “systemized” in Mexico. The workshops were moderated by handpicked individuals that represented non-profits and empresarios with the previous PRI administration. The consulate and Valdovinos had already met with select groups in “pre-forums.” Attendees interrupted the moderators concluding remarks to ask about the blocked entry of the citizen before the forum. Morena Committee members attempted to
suppress the demands through alleging the individuals were PRI or PAN party sympathizers and even physically intimidation. Among the dissident voices were demands of transparency and accountability regarding the construction of the Tren Maya. The committee went as far as getting consulate and New School security officers to remove them from the building, however this was successfully de-escalated through solidarity efforts to protect the dissident voice. Valdovinos quickly concluded the event and admitted to committing “a little vengeance” on the citizen that was denied entry whom he referred to as a “duende” or fairy, whom he had a previous altercation with before the election of president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO. Roberto Valdovinos positioned himself as a transnational diplomat in the tri-state area doing outreach for current MX president AMLO’s Morena party during the election season. Few Mexicans abroad were able to vote but Morena was successful in organizing mobs that pitted Mexican grassroots and non profit groups against each other regionally. There was a public and documented altercation between Ayotzinapa missing student father, Antonio Tizapa and AMLO during his visit to New York City when the community questioned his commitment to the investigation and justice of the disappearance of the 43 students in the state of Guerrero. The altercation resulted in ha-
rassment and intimidation of AMLO critics from supporters of the Morena party. With very little to no transparency AMLO is moving forward with his plan to build the train Maya for tourism in Southern Mexico. Through the folklorization of the very diverse and specific Maya culture, AMLO has excluded indigenous communities from his own consultation process and intentionally evaded the Maya Zapatista communities. Morena followers have launched a campaign to discredit the Zapatistas to deflect the destruction of biodiversity and endangerment of species that the train will bring to the zone. NYC’s Mexican population primarily comes from the Mixteca region in Southern Mexico. We, the collected Mexicans abroad, demand to have a voice and power in the decisions made in our homeland and territories where our families reside. We do not want to return to a Mexico where our lands have been destroyed and our communities displaced for the entertainment of tourists and the wealth accumulation of the few. We are artists, we are undocumented, families, workers, muxes, intellectuals and politically engaged organizers. We will not be complacent; we will not tolerate harassment or intimidation. We are organized and global. We refuse the fascist nationalist and repressive attitude of Roberto Valdovinos. We raise our voices together and demand that the SRE/IME listen to us and let us elect our own representative.
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