Why was Vice President Harris greeted in Guatemala with Trump campaign signs?

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Fresh Toast.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s first international trip via Guatemala to Mexico was delayed by a few hours because her plane had to return to Joint Base Andrews about 30 minutes after take-off due to technical problems. Maybe that was an omen …

A short story.

Photo by John Coletti / Getty Images

August 13th marks the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, today’s Mexico City. The Aztecs had conquered central Mexico around 1300 and established one of the (literally) bloodiest regimes in human history. Human sacrifice was essentially the state religion.

Yet, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently called on Spain and the Vatican to apologize for the conquest. They refused.

SEE: Mexico Calls for Apologies from Spain and the Vatican for Conquest

The Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz famously said: “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” That was over 100 years ago, but it’s still a convenient way for Mexican politicians to shift the blame, such as demanding that Spain apologize for liberating central Mexico from the Aztec Empire.

Unfortunately, extreme violence is a recurring part of Mexican history. Over 100 politicians were murdered in their most recent election.

SEE: Dozens of candidates murdered ahead of Mexico’s June 6 elections

This time the violence was a bit “excessive”.

Watch a man throw his severed head at the polling station as Mexico’s mid-term violence rages and the Mexican cartel now targets police officers in their homes

Yet Mexico’s endemic corruption continues with impunity.

SEE: The Impunity of Alberto Reyes Vaca, the Mexican Army General Who Loved Drug Ballads AND: Mexico Failures To Legalize Marijuana As The Chaos In The Drug War Grows

But Mexico is relatively peaceful and prosperous compared to its southern neighbors. So Harris’ first stop wasn’t Mexico City, it was Guatemala City, but then things got weird.

Harris was greeted by protesters in Guatemala with professionally printed signs saying “Trump has won” and “Go home” – as the country’s president blamed President Biden for this year’s “migration crisis”.

Photo by Brandon Bell / Getty Images

Look at the context. The “border crisis” does not begin in Guatemala or even with its southern neighbors Honduras or El Salvador.

They were all devastated by multiple hurricanes and, of course, the drug war.

LOOK: We have to realize that the war in Afghanistan is not our “longest war”

Of course, the very Trumpian New York Post got excited and ran the headline: Guatemala’s Prez blames Biden for the border crisis when protesters say to Kamala Harris: “Trump won”. But how and why should protesters in Guatemala professionally print posters inciting Biden? Other signs actually attacked Harris for not having children. Not exactly the kind of greeting one would expect given the circumstances.

It’s easy to see why these people want to flee to the United States. Hurricanes and endemic poverty and the drug war are reasons enough, but they also flee the violence associated with their national political and ethnic divisions.

For example: The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala that was waged from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various left rebel groups, which were mainly supported by ethnic Maya indigenous people and Ladin farmers … “

So it’s easy to understand “Migrant caravans from Central America”except how they really work.How do thousands of the world’s poorest people march 1,300 miles (maybe up to 2,500 to California) from Guatemala City to the US border?

LOOK: That’s how long it takes to walk from Mexico’s southern border to the US

Who organized it? Who paid for their food and other expenses? The same people paid for the Trump posters? Just ask.

Photo by Greg Gallaher via Unsplash

And why should they blame Biden when there was a huge caravan right before the 2018 midterm elections? As explained in this Examiner article, “President Trump has repeatedly accused Democratic lawmakers of luring migrants to travel to the US without first filing an asylum application at a US consulate in his home country. He said the new caravan was the result of lawmakers failing to remove “loopholes” that allow the majority of families and children smuggled north to avoid prosecution and to be released from federal custody shortly after arrest. “

“Trump said aid to Central American countries would now be stopped or restricted after failing to contain their own people.”

So it’s Biden’s fault and Trump is her hero? Just ask.

Richard Cowan is a former NORML National Director and author of Is The Hemp CBD Industry Sustainable?