“As publicity continues to grow about the SPP, we can expect more grassroots opposition in all 3 countries. Anti-SPP Americans and anti-SPP Mexicans disagree on many issues. But they have a common enemy.”
By Allan Wall
Why do a growing number of Americans oppose the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership), the three-country framework drawing the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a closer union?
They oppose it because the kind of continental integration it envisions threatens U.S. sovereignty and the primacy of our Constitution.
But if merging with Mexico and Canada would destroy American sovereignty, what would it do to the sovereignties of Canada and Mexico?
The interesting reality is that in both Canada and Mexico, there is also opposition to the SPP and related integration. Canadians and Mexicans also see it as a threat to their sovereignty! [For example, see http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=4b1bc1a3-32be-4aac-af56-5636db7ef5a3&k=32965 Kelly Patterson, Vancouver Sun, August 18, 2007The vast body of American cyber-literature on the topic almost completely ignores Mexican opposition to the SPP. In fact, I have seen some writers confidently state that there is no opposition to the SPP in Mexico.
But there is.
Of course, we shouldn’t imagine that anti-SPP Mexicans and Canadians have exactly the same perspective as an anti-SPP American. They don’t. But each one—for different reasons —sees the SPP as a threat to their country.
Americans may rarely think about Mexico. But Mexicans see the U.S. as a powerful country that can do anything it wants and constantly threatens Mexican sovereignty. The U.S. is seen as always on the verge of taking over Mexico.
It’s in that context that many Mexicans view NAFTA: as a way for U.S. business/government to exercise hegemony over Mexico. And that’s how some view the SPP (or as it’s called in Spanish, the Alianza Para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad de América del Norte—ASPAN).
Generally, the opposition to SPP is found on the right in the U.S. and on the left in Mexico.
http://www.vdare.com/awall/070821_memo.htm