Blog about sports and politics and whatever else seems interesting from a guy (formerly) in Mexico.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Odd Historical Fact
According to a new article in Nexos, Adolfo López Mateos, Mexico's president from 1958 to 1964, was born in Guatemala. This would have made his candidacy unconstitutional, but I'm not sure what it means today, more than half a century after he was elected.
ALM lived in Guatemala in the early 1930s (he had to flee because of his activities as a student organizer for the Vasconcellos campaign of 1929), but there's some gaping holes in the birth story.
The family was a prominent in intellectual circles, which -- had they been Guatemalan -- would have been remarked upon.
There's no evidence of either parent having ever lived in Guatemala, nor -- even if it had been true -- would it have mattered, the Constitution at the time (and now) recognizing him as a Mexican by birth. Had his father been a Guatemalan, that would have mattered, but no evidence to that effect exists.
There was some question of Vicente Fox's father's nationality, which came up late in Fox's tenure. Fox Sr. had claimed to be a U.S. citizen in a lawsuit, but as the story grew legs, the missing birth certificate "coincidentally" reappeared.
I can't help noticing that NEXOS likes to write "me too" stories of Mexican and the U.S., and -- given the kerfluffle over the manufactured Obama birth certificate controversy (and NEXOS' own anti-PRI biases), a story claiming the really outstanding (and left-wing) PRI leader was a foreigner is a natural.
I thought Fox had to get a constitutional change because of his father's foreign birth in the mid-1990s? Is that not right? It's been years since I've read it, but I remember that being discussed in Opening Mexico.
It's true; the constitution used to say that you needed to be the child of two parents who were citizens by birth in order to be president.
If ALM's parents were citizens by birth, then his presidency was constitutional. Not that the Mexican constitution meant anything at the time, but still.
It's the obverse of the Birther wackiness. Even if President Obama hadn't been born in Hawaii, he'd still be a natural-born citizen as the courts define it by virtue of his mother's citizenship. Not that I'm trying to convince those meatheads of anything.
You see this story? Crazy people in this world, there are.
I did see that story, it got some press here. What a whackjob. I love how Barack is misspelled in the link too. But even if his reasoning is dubious, I'm more than content with that guy not holding a gun on behalf of the US.
4 comments:
ALM lived in Guatemala in the early 1930s (he had to flee because of his activities as a student organizer for the Vasconcellos campaign of 1929), but there's some gaping holes in the birth story.
The family was a prominent in intellectual circles, which -- had they been Guatemalan -- would have been remarked upon.
There's no evidence of either parent having ever lived in Guatemala, nor -- even if it had been true -- would it have mattered, the Constitution at the time (and now) recognizing him as a Mexican by birth. Had his father been a Guatemalan, that would have mattered, but no evidence to that effect exists.
There was some question of Vicente Fox's father's nationality, which came up late in Fox's tenure. Fox Sr. had claimed to be a U.S. citizen in a lawsuit, but as the story grew legs, the missing birth certificate "coincidentally" reappeared.
I can't help noticing that NEXOS likes to write "me too" stories of Mexican and the U.S., and -- given the kerfluffle over the manufactured Obama birth certificate controversy (and NEXOS' own anti-PRI biases), a story claiming the really outstanding (and left-wing) PRI leader was a foreigner is a natural.
I thought Fox had to get a constitutional change because of his father's foreign birth in the mid-1990s? Is that not right? It's been years since I've read it, but I remember that being discussed in Opening Mexico.
It's true; the constitution used to say that you needed to be the child of two parents who were citizens by birth in order to be president.
If ALM's parents were citizens by birth, then his presidency was constitutional. Not that the Mexican constitution meant anything at the time, but still.
It's the obverse of the Birther wackiness. Even if President Obama hadn't been born in Hawaii, he'd still be a natural-born citizen as the courts define it by virtue of his mother's citizenship. Not that I'm trying to convince those meatheads of anything.
You see this story? Crazy people in this world, there are.
I did see that story, it got some press here. What a whackjob. I love how Barack is misspelled in the link too. But even if his reasoning is dubious, I'm more than content with that guy not holding a gun on behalf of the US.
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