Why Was Vice President Harris Greeted With Trump Campaign Signs In Guatemala?
Article by Richard Cowan. Vice President Kamala Harris first international trip to Mexico via Guatemala was delayed for a few hours because her plane was forced to return to Joint Base Andrews due to technical problems about 30 minutes after it took off. Maybe that was an omen  A little history  This August 13 will be the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City. The Aztecs had conquered central Mexico in the 1300s and had established one of the (literally) bloodiest regimes in human history. Human sacrifice was essentially the state religion. Nonetheless, Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador recently demanded that Spain and the Vatican apologize for the Conquest. They declined. See Mexico demands apology from Spain and the Vatican over conquest  The Mexican dictator, Porfirio Daz, famously said, Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States. That was over 100 years ago, but it is still a convenient way for Mexican politicians to pass the blame, like demanding that Spain apologize for liberating central Mexico from the Aztec empire. Unfortunately, extreme violence is a frequently recurring part of Mexican history. In their recent elections, over 100 politicians were murdered. See Dozens of candidates murdered ahead of Mexicos June 6 elections  This time the violence was a bit over the top.  See Man Tosses Severed Head at Voting Station as Mexicos Midterm Election Violence Rages  And Mexican cartel now targeting cops at their homes  Nonetheless, Mexicos endemic corruption continues with impunity. See The impunity of Alberto Reyes Vaca, the Mexican army general who was fond of drug ballads. The former commander of the Special Forces Corps installed a bar at his barracks, used soldiers as waiters at private parties and charged the bill to the military budget  And Mexico Fails To Legalize Marijuana As Drug War Chaos Grows  But Mexico is relatively peaceful and prosperous compared to its southern neighbors. So Harris first stop was not Mexico City, but Guatemala City, but then it got weird. Harris was greeted by protesters in Guatemala with professionally printed signs telling her Trump won and go home  as the countrys president blamed President Biden for this years migrant crisis.  Consider the context. The Border Crisis does not begin in Guatemala or even with its southern neighbors, Honduras or El Salvador. All of them have been devastated by multiple hurricanes, and  of course the Drug War. Other signs actually attacked Harris for not having children. Not exactly the kind of greeting that one might expect under the circumstances. It is easy to understand why these people would want to flee to the United States. Hurricanes and endemic poverty and the Drug War are reasons enough, but they are also fleeing the violence related to their national political and ethnic divisions. For example: The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups, which were primarily supported by ethnic Maya indigenous peoples and Ladino peasants  So it is easy to understand Central American migrant caravans except for just how they really work. As the Examiner explained, President Trump has repeatedly blamed Democratic lawmakers for enticing migrants to travel to the U.S. without having applied for asylum at a U.S. consulate in ones home country ahead of time.