In politics, in daily life, at dinners and gatherings with family and friends, we all always see ourselves, in the end, judged on a single judgment: was someone’s comment relevant or not throughout the lunch, dinner or meeting.
Often no one gets away with it. It is inevitable that one’s emotions go far above what is being discussed, the conviction with which it is expressed or regarding the ideas that in these times seem so important and intransigent at the same time.
In the week before, the world turned upside down.
After years of threats and, apparently, non-compliance by the West with respect to the Minsk agreements (those that agreed that NATO would not expand beyond what until then had been the occupation of Western war forces, which would not come any closer to Russia) was broken and Russia made the decision to defend its borders, to what they call a safe space.
The subject is quite an in-depth discussion, but in this as in other cases there is no single reason, there is history, and a lot of ink that experts can summarize and give us ideas.
The European Union spoke out forcefully against Russia’s military actions. Most of the countries of America and Asia, too. Except for China and some other Asians who are looking for their accommodation, in what may be a new context and international order, in geopolitical matters. In the end, alliances and shadows make agreements between countries prevail.
The entire world, the countries and their societies demonstrated through networks, in the traditional media and in any space that could take a position for or against Russia’s war actions against Ukraine.
The matter is not minor: Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. It provides the gas that moves the German economy, it is the central space of the balance between Eastern Europe and the influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. Anyone who has been through college and knows a bit of history, not only national, but of the world, would know that the issue is particularly serious.
For all that has been said, but for what remains to be done, to build a fairly reasonable picture of the conditions and consequences of what is happening there, the issues addressed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador this week are surprising.
There is one, however, that draws attention: while the world is debating, to the point where Vladimir Putin puts his nuclear forces on alert and the president of the United States of North America threatens something similar, the president of Mexico declares that they treated his wife very despotically and that he wanted to demand that Austria return Moctezuma’s plume to our country.
I have not the slightest idea of the meaning of the statement by the President of Mexico in the midst of the enormous and delicate crisis that the world is experiencing.
I also have no idea, nor can I imagine or explain the importance that requesting the return of Moctezuma’s Headdress may have at this time.
I can remember, in the midst of our situation, several things:
Moctezuma’s headdress is perhaps the only true gift to Cortez and his King, Carlos the Fifth. If for some reason the request is nonsense, it is because Moctezuma gave Hernán that plume in recognition and friendship to the monarch in turn. He who gives and takes away, with the devil takes it out. There is no diplomatic, international law or any other argument that motivates his return. Was a present. What part is not understood?
Afterwards, the plume cannot be moved. It is under conditions of temperature and care impossible to achieve in its transfer.
But the most important thing: why do we want Moctezuma’s Headdress right now? In a few weeks, next year, in three months? What will move the national spirit and the success of the government?
Why, while the world is experiencing one of its most delicate crises, does the president of Mexico think it is important to claim the plume?
Will the Ukrainian troops destroy it? The Russians? Because it is important?
The suspicion I have, given the circumstances and the situation of our government, is that Doña Beatriz got angry with the president and told him: you don’t even move because the Austrians treated me badly with the plume. If you want me to continue as your partner, complain and then we’ll see.
Nothing else comes to mind, but nothing less either.
Lawyer, political scientist and economist
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Essayist and interested in legal and justice issues. currently professor at the Faculty of Law of the UNAM.