WHY IS MEXICO NOT A PART OF THE BRICS?
GeoPolitics… There is a saying in Mexico attributed to Porfirio Diaz, our last so called dictator: “Poor Mexico, so far away from God but too close to the US.”
Mexico is as crucial to the US as eastern Ukraine is to Russia. Meaning that the US will keep it’s control over this land as long as they can. Hence why Mexico has that unique relationship with the US; sometimes quite convenient, often imposed by force. That includes FULL DEPENDENCY on the US dollar (like most of Latin America).
In this case, BRICS is a real direct “i
n your face” geopolitical threat to the US territory/economy. Making it impossible for Mexico to even ponder a “US adverse” alliance (openly).
Having said that, Mexico has always enjoyed a strong influence over LatAm and keeps good relationships with the “unwanted” nations of NATO (Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey, VERY close to Russia, China, etc.). The nation’s need to dampen the US’ might/threat over it, forces it to walk a very thin line between total US domination and limited independence. Hence why Mexico ALWAYS strives to remain neutral, an absolute must for whoever rules Mexico. The few times a Mexican president has tried to get closer to the US, well he gets utterly cancelled (Huerta, Salinas, Fox, Peña Nieto).
What does that mean then? Mexico cannot join BRICS because the country would quickly turn into a Syria/Libya/Lebanon: endless decades of foreign-sponsored civil unrest. The likes of what happened in Colombia with the FARC guerrilla.
The end result? Mexico would end up like Ukraine, divided into three:
Northern Mexico (US proxy), Central Mexico (whatever is left of the country), and Southern Mexico (which would become another Central American country bouncing back and forth between socialism and “democracy”).
Many lengthy and quite detailed studies have been made on this subject, most date back to the early 70s; when Mexico was searching for a “new path”. An example of this is what happened in the late 90s with the “indigenous uprising” (another proxy conflict) in Southern Mexico, funded by those who freaked out on NAFTA, perceived by many as Mexico’s final capitulation to the US.
BUT then? Mexican Geopolitics desperately need to break that US Dollar yoke for many reasons, the main ones being:
1.
Regaining control/independence over its economy. NOT a single centavo leaves or enters Mexico without passing through the US.
Any foreign currency that “enters” Mexico HAS to be exchanged in NYC, first into dollars and then into pesos (from Euros to Yuan, Bolívares, Rubles, etc.) and vice versa. IMO Mexico’s true bank is the US Fed Reserve as it happens with the rest of LatAm (the origins of the eternal battle between Argentina and the US, the dependence Chavez wanted to break, what Castro managed to achieve, what El Salvador is trying with their eCurrency experiment)
2.
That situation increases financing costs quite a bit. Imagine that for every Euro you get, you lose some cents twice: Once when converting Euros to US$ and then converting them to Pesos. If the FOREX spread is 1–3% multiply it by 2.
For every Peso Mexico spends or earns, the US Fed makes a 3% commission. THIS applies to almost all of LatAm! That’s quite a handsome LITERAL royalty, isn’t it? You can also call it the US commerce tax, hence why the US can also run those irrational deficits; they get those royalties paid for every single cent that transits through LatAm and every single oil barrel that gets sold in the Western world.
3.
For that same reason, Currency reserves are kept “under custody” in the US, specifically NYC Federal Reserve Bank on 33 “Liberty” St.
Those are used as “guarantees to secure” Mexico’s intl. transactions as it happens with the rest of the Continent.
There have been at least three attempts by Mexico to go back to the “gold Standard”, but based on Silver since we’re top producers of it. The most recent one was in the early 2000s even before the financial meltdown; it went nowhere: Politics…
BUT After what happened recently when the US “froze” (stole) Afghani and Russian Intl. Reserves (a sacred NO TOUCH thing) via “presidential speech”; most of the world freaked out and ALL are looking for ways to protect their savings/reserves. HENCE ALL are looking for an alternative way to protect their wealth by avoiding US$ dependency.
Back to Mexico, the country has been looking for ways to become “US Fed free” since our Insurgency (mid-1800s). The ONLY time it happened was during Don Porfirio’s “dictatorship” (early 1900s) and that effort was cut short thanks to a “Revolution against a Dictator” (sounds familiar? Libya, Syria, Iraq, etc.). The other attempts were in the '70s-80s when Mexico went broke 3 times in a row (suspect as hell)… and as I said the timid effort was orchestrated in the mid-2000s.
SO YES, Mexico is continuously searching to end that US$ yoke BUT needs to be quite careful and stealthy about it.
A BRICS-related multinational group has been working on it since BRICS was founded (2006), I call it the secret Latam effort (Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, to name some).
NOTE one Thing, Brazil is not the typical LatAm country, nor is it culturally similar to the rest of the continent hence why that country usually goes “it’s own way” unless it’s convenient. So Brazil will do little to help the rest of the continent unless it’s convenient for them. Kind of like Turkey who swings anyway it deems convenient.
Becoming US$ independent has been a LatAm priority for over a century. And now under the Russian economic checkmate and China recently inviting LatAm to join BRICS it will not be long before LatAm takes and economic stand on its COMMODITIES transactions also (food staples, minerals, oil)… Remember its been on the works for a while so it won’t be just a “gut reaction”.
The Question is, how will the US/NATO/EU react to this “new threat”?
A HUGE & crucial Geopolitical Crisis for the US?
Where will the next LatAm PROXY civil unrest explode?
How fast will it spread? A LatAm spring on the works?
What color will these “revolutions” use? A LatAm version of ISIS?
Keep an eye on who the Euro's will praise if this starts, those “liberators” will be the paid mercenaries.
All bets are off, now that the Russian Bear awoke from hibernation. The New World Economic Order is underway and the tumult will last for decades to come…
One thing is sure, NOW that it became obvious the US is willing to “commandeer” ANY Monetary Reserves and China is willing to spread BRICS beyond it’s current membership, many countries will try to take advantage of that sponsorship:
a) Trade in Yuan,
b) barter commodities for infrastructure projects (Silk Road) or
c) base your trading on Gold guarantees (The Russian way).
A Brave New World will start emerging next summer. Buy some gold/silver, buy enough pop corn and may God allow you to land “on the right side of the coin”.
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