North America, the possibilities of integration
Diego Martin Velázquez Caballero
We are faced with an extraordinary geopolitical scenario. The way the events in Afghanistan have been unfolding leave the waters rough and complicated. Reflection on the events in Afghanistan shows us the importance that US imperialism still has. The apparent abandonment of this regional pivot constitutes a risk for what Brzezinski called the Eurasian Balkans. Leaving the zone implies unbalancing the fragile balance and observing if other regional powers are capable of fixing it or initiating new conflicts that demand the presence of the United States.
Meanwhile, the regional concentration on the American continent of American power is a fundamental consequence. Brzezinski appears to be giving way to Huntington. The Afghan question is not minor, taking into account that the Taliban are an American creation. In other words, while it is true that they are withdrawing from military control in that region, both the government that was abandoned and the one that the Taliban seek to affirm have ties with the United States. There is no way to inhibit it.
The abandonment of Afghanistan is a sample of what can happen in the world. The pivot zones that have just been released now offer the possibility - and the risk - for the entire world to take matters into their own hands.
There is an anti-American obsession in various parts of the world and every situation like Afghanistan is evidence of what autonomy can cost, the return of religious fundamentalisms.
The fact that the United States -apparently- withdraws from this Eurasian geographical triangle implies a greater presence in the American continent. Something that can be positive or negative depending on the situation that each Latin American country can produce.
Increasing integration is the obvious consequence of this process, but as each nation in our latitude is capable of transforming its socioeconomic structure, the direct consequence may be colonialism, interventionism, or level integration.
In the Mexican case, the abandonment of Afghanistan means greater interventionism by the United States. Situation that also implies a strong responsibility. It is probably one of the last junctures that history offers for a formal integration. Mexico has nowhere to turn to form a geopolitical bloc and the situation with North America is natural.
There is a possibility that the situation in Mexico can change, but it requires a lot of cooperation from the political class.
The world right confronts each other, on the one hand, those who yearn to maintain the hegemony of the West and, on the other, those who think that this is over and victorious capitalism must take care not only of its victims but also of possibility and externalities so that mankind can survive.
While the Mexican political system is exhausted in a sterile and ridiculous competition, the speed of the changes that are shaping the post-covid world is lost sight of.
Mexico has the task of designing a giant economic strategy that is capable of measuring the demands and needs that American society now presents.
The importance of the United States cannot be evaded from the Mexican political agenda, it implies a greater possibility of jobs, emigration, exchange, trade, national security.
Organized crime groups will be the first to be affected by the US national concentration. The remnants of the peasant rebellion are concentrated in drug trafficking and organized crime, the presence of the United States and the awareness of its national security can contribute to the control of these groups. But the country must change its socioeconomic structure to take advantage of the greater concentration that the United States links to have regionally.
During the neoliberal era, the situation in Mexico was transformed - for better or for worse. It is no longer a rural country in the process of transition to an urban country. In one way or another, Mexico has more cities, highways, and industrial spaces that have changed the economy. Most of the Mexican peasants emigrated to North America to survive, and continue to do so, including people from small towns or those displaced by drug violence. Most of the Mexican farmers live in North American cities and, each time, they have had to dedicate themselves to activities that have almost nothing to do with agriculture. They are, perhaps, the main representatives of an accelerated schizophrenic modernity that the natives of what was called Latin America have lived since the 15th century.
How can Mexico contribute to pentagonism? The best contribution is to evade military intervention and take advantage of economic lines: trade, migration, national security and even agro-industrial reconversion