DISINFO: The US promotes ‘balkanisation’ of Mexico to annex rich northern regions
SUMMARY
Secessionist plans to ‘balkanise’ Mexico by the [Mexican] opposition National Action Party (PAN) are gaining traction. At the same time, US Republican senator Daniel McCarthy threatens to “annex Mexico”, reviving the ashes of Nueva Vizcaya and the Republic of the Rio Grande in the 19th century. For two decades Mexico’s ‘balkanisation’ has been a strategic issue for the US.
RESPONSE
No evidence is provided to support the claim, other than a tweet by a politician of a minoritarian party, who said that the north of the country could be much more developed if it could get rid of the southern poor regions of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. It is true that governors of the states ruled by the National Action Party created an association to oppose the politics of Mexico's president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but there is nothing pointing to a separatist movement trying to re-establish the entity of Nueva Vizcaya (the first region explored and settled by the Spanish conquerors in the north of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the 16th century) or the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande (a secessionist attempt in the 19th century). Also, senator Daniel McCarthy didn’t “threaten” to annex Mexico. Though controversial, his proposal was that if so many Mexicans want to become US citizens, they should start a petition to the Congress in Washington for their territories to become US States. This is part of a long-established pro-Kremlin narrative about the alleged US promotion of separatism in different regions as a means to destabilize rival countries, as Santa Cruz province in Bolivia or the oil-rich Zulia region in Venezuela. In Mexico’s case, the targeted area would be the so-called Burgos basin, rich in shale gas, which opened to private investment in 2017. See other examples of the corresponding disinformation narrative here and here.