Juan Becerra Acosta: The greeting that challenges historical memory

From the archaic and shabby cuisine of the descendants of Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia, founder of the Mexican Fascist Party in 1922, recipes appear today that attempt, as they did 100 years ago, to stop the policies of the Mexican Revolution. The ingredients are the same: subservience, hate speech, racism, repudiation of migrants, reactionary policies and lynching of anyone who thinks differently, among others, to which are added more recent expressions such as Nazi symbols and the attempt to abolish rights that have been achieved.

Beyond political preferences and partisan repudiations, who could agree to emulate the Nazi salute? Who thinks it is a good idea to repeat that ritual symbol of worship of Adolf Hitler with which loyalty to the Führer was declared, in an almost religious way? Who could defend such behavior? The salute Heil, Hitler! represents the commission of a series of crimes that during the first half of the 20th century lacerated humanity. It signifies the attempt to exterminate the Jewish people and the intention of a group to dominate the world under principles of racial superiority. Today new wounds are being caused on those old scars.

Just a few days ago, the representative of the Mexican far right, Eduardo Verástegui, a member of a family of caciques in Tamaulipas, a one-time soap opera actor and a saccharine singer in a male trio, the same character who appeared so often toasting with a glass of red wine on the plane used by Peña Nieto, as well as in a poster lying down with no more clothing to cover his nakedness than a lion cub, emulated the Nazi salute ¡heil, Hitler! during the far-right convention held at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, United States. He is not the only one, also Elon Musk, after Donald Trump's inauguration, and Steve Bannon at the same CPAC, saluted Hitler as Nazi troops did.

There is no way to give that fascist salute with which they threaten to repeat the expulsion or systematic extermination of ethnic or ideological groups any other meaning than the one it has and which represents the danger of Nazism being reorganized and with it the abolition of human rights. You cannot construct with the same gesture a representation other than the one that, impregnated with blood, pain and suffering, it already has. To try, as Musk and Verástegui himself want, to fool the world by arguing that, despite the fact that they saluted Adolf Hitler in the same way as thousands of Nazi soldiers, they did not make the salute "heil, Hitler!" , but another one that comes from the heart , is to pretend that humanity is stupid and lacks memory. But stupid is the one who believes that the people are stupid .

The atrocities committed during Nazism should not be forgotten under the same salute that the far-right emulates today, because to forget would be to commit injustice once again. The lack of memory combined with the manipulation of consciences results in the lessons of the past not being learned and being repeated. Hence the anchoring of the far-right in old institutions whose cultural roots are as old as they are retrograde.

Aspirationism, which is not the same as having aspirations, plays a fundamental role that specialists in the manipulation of consciences under the payroll of far-right organizations know very well. God, country and family is the phrase with which Verástegui promoted himself in his failed attempt to be an independent candidate for the Presidency of Mexico in 2024, and with which he is now trying to create a new political party. It should not be forgotten that this phrase, coined by the general secretary of the National Fascist Party, Giovanni Giurati, is the same one that was uttered when committing the crimes against humanity of that criminal regime. The same happens with the salute Heil, Hitler! with which this subject and his henchmen threaten the world with eradicating anyone who does not share their retrograde vision of the world.