Talk:2017 CAS St. Anthonys summit

Angelina II's speech
Remarks by the Queen to the Extraordinary Session of the Conference of American States Madrigal Center Könisberg, Teutonica

10:34 A.M. EST

THE QUEEN: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary-General, fellow peers, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege to speak before you all today. I would like to start off by first, thanking everyone involved in this week's event. The Extraordinary Session is a truly exceptional and awe-inspiring event that we are all very fortunate to hold each year. These summits go beyond more than just platitudes and speeches. It is a demonstration of international goodwill and continental brotherhood. It is a body united as one, dedicated to promoting the principles of democracy, freedom, and prosperity. I send my greatest thanks to the Secretariat who have done so much to ensure this event runs smoothly, as it always does, this year. I also want to just ask if everyone could thank the great nation of Teutonica to hosting this event this year. Your country is truly remarkable and the contributions you have done for the Conference has not only helped your people, but the world itself. We are working ever closer to a more peaceful and just world, and for that, let's give them a round of applause, shall we?

(Applause)

And the city, Könisberg, a very beautiful city. It is a city of great international importance. Highly diverse and one of the fastest-growing cities on the continent. Truly remarkable and fascinating history. Give another a round applause!

(Applause)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to tell you of the story of an immigrant named Carlos Madril. I have been fortunate enough to meet Mr. Madril himself, and I am honored to be able to tell his story today before you all.

Carlos was born in a small, sleepy town of El Fuerte, Sinaloa in Mexico, son of a farmer and a basket weaver. Now El Fuerte has gone by another name, nicknamed by locals as Pueblo Mágico, Spanish for "Magical Town". The charming town is just a few miles from the international border between the Sierran Los Pacíficos and Mexico. We will get back to that later.

As a young boy, he joined the youth wing of the National Syndicalist Party. He started off as a party member, but he was dedicated. He did it for his family. For his people. His party. He worked diligently, following orders from the party leadership. He went door-to-door soliciting his townsmen to vote for his party and brought friends to rallies. And during the elections, he would be the first to wake up in the early morning, ready to get to the polls. He got his parents, his siblings, teacher, schoolmates–just about everyone in town to get out to vote if they could. Of course, he couldn't vote yet. He wasn't an adult. But he still went out because he believed it was essential as citizens, that people went out there to exercise their civic duty and to make sure their voice was heard.

Well, that night, after the votes were tallied, the results came in. As expected, the National Syndicalist Party won by unprecedented margins. He was ecstatic, confident that the will of the people had been effectively communicated. He held the party with great esteem, inspired by their promises for a thriving, robust economy and an invigorated nation, proud to call Mexico their home. This was 13 years ago when he and his town backed the enigmatic man, Pablo Hidalgo de Veracruz.

Now I know this name has been thrown around constantly on the media and even within these chambers. We are all too familiar with the despotism and cronyism that has plagued the very foundations of Mexican society. I mention the story of Carlos because soon after President Hidalgo de Veracruz was elected, he began cracking down on political opponents. He used the state media to his advantage, silencing anyone who questioned his policies, and started militarizing his country. Instead of spending money on his people, he sent the money towards his troops. He had a different vision for Mexico, certainly not one Carlos envisioned. Hidalgo aspired for greatness not by looking from within, but from beyond. He channeled his discontent at his nation's problems by attributing it to past actions which have long since been resolved and amended.

My friends, Carlos did not remain a member of the National Syndicalist Party for too long. When he finally came of age, he did not vote for the party he had grown up with. He chose a different party. He voted the Popular Democratic Front, a party which was speaking out against the extrajudicial and harmful measures Hidalgo was undertaking. He did the very same things he had done when he was advocating the Syndicalists. His entire town was on board. He was even thinking of running as a local party candidate himself and wanted to take office. However, something different happened. You see, he came under the radar of the Syndicalists who did not appreciate his sort of activities. Syndicalist supporters accused him of committing sedition and stowed him away after they claimed he refused to salute the Mexican flag. He was jailed for inciting political revolution, even though all he did was pushing for a fairer and freer democracy. He earnestly believed it, he truly did.

This thinking was not something Hidalgo or his party desired though. Carlos was labeled a traitor who hated his own country. He was labeled a subversive force who willingly aligned himself with external imperialist forces. They locked up Carlos' family too because they shared the same views as him. In fact, the jailor he spent the night with on the day of his arrest flatly stated that he had no rights to begin with because he was a traitor.

They of course, let him and his family go afterwards–but not before they had already dispossessed them of their belongings and home. They became homeless and they had no other options but to look northward. Carlos' mother, unfortunately, grew very ill and so, his father offered to stay back, while urging Carlos and his siblings to leave. Carlos was only 19 at the time, and the thought of getting separated from his own family terrified him. After some convincing and a painful goodbye, Carlos and his siblings looked to escape by getting help by a smuggler, known as a coyote, to get them across the border.

The smuggler normally refused to offer assistance to anyone who did not have the money to pay him, but it was these special circumstances that the coyote, upon hearing Carlos and his siblings' situation, agreed to offer them safe passage across the border. They followed an untraveled path and it took about two days, just to avoid detection by the Mexican Border Patrol, who were astutely aware and prepared to apprehend any would-be escapees. Finally, the sight of the border was within their field of vision. Tall and imposing, it was flanked by layers upon layers of barbed wire, spikes, and towers. The coyote of course, knew the way in was not over but under. They built an elaborate tunnel network that would let people move in and out freely without detection.

Carlos and his two siblings followed the coyote into a passage, some 500 meters away, hoping to have a chance to experience true freedom. After what seemed like hours, trying to navigate through the dimly lit and poorly ventilated tunnel, they reached what they believed was the point between Sierra and Mexico. To their horror, they were met with Border Patrol officials. The coyote had ensnared them in a trap, and was an informant for the party, who turned in attempting deserters to the party for a commission.

They returned to town and were brutally punished. Carlos was interrogated and beaten by the guards, demanding to know why he tried to escape. During his second time in jail, he received the unfortunate news that his mother had passed away, having died from cholera. The whereabouts of his father on the other hand, was a mystery. His siblings, who were only 7 and 11 respectively, were sent away, to become wards of the state. Carlos found himself alone and his family gone. And he wondered, how could such a government become so depraved as to destroy their own people's livelihoods?

He regretted horribly his past advocacy for the Syndicalists. He wished everything in his being if he could have went back and gotten others to vote in his town differently. At least then, he believed, he would have had no culpability or part in getting the party that oppressed his people now to win. He would spend several months in jail, not even being offered any form of trial. They didn't bother offering him a formal sentence, so he remained jailed as long as they felt it. Finally, after eight months in imprisonment, he was offered a chance to earn his freedom, but with a catch. He would be allowed to leave if he enlisted in the army, under the careful supervision and watch of his superiors, to prove his loyalty to the country. He agreed, though only to escape the sordid conditions of that jail cell.

Once he joined the military, he was disciplined and trained to obey. The military commanders spoke openly of Mexico's destiny to retake lands they lost long ago and to usher in a new political order with Mexico at the center in the Western Hemisphere. They believed in a future where the American imperialists were defeated and their ideas would be extinguished. They boasted the resolve and willpower of the party, of the people. It was here Carlos only received confirmation of what he already knew when he decided to leave the party a year before. They were socially re-engineering a people to hate and despise nations and peoples the government said were enemies. They were dismantling the democratic institutions of the country to repress outside voices and sought to do the same to other nations' own institutions. Every fiber in his body yearned for escape from that draconian world and took it upon himself to escape the country and to tell the world of the injustice and exploitation occurring in his own country.

Folks, I do not need to tell you how Carlos found his way out. His story is like so many others and we hear them everyday on the news. What I can tell you is that he managed to escape and soon thereafter, he began his mission towards educating people about the dangers of a repressive government that ignores democracy. I tell you his story because this is an ongoing story. We are confronted with an existential crisis, right on our own backyard, that stands for everything against what the Conference of American States stands for. We have watched from the sidelines for years now, unable to do anything about the injustice occurring in Mexico. Contrary to what countervailing views may have you believe, we cannot continue to ignore this problem as a non-existent or distant threat. The threat is very real and the rise of the Mexican bureaucratic class is one we simply cannot take lightly.

If we are serious about upholding the principles and values of democracy, free elections, peace, and freedom, then we must act and reaffirm our commitment as stewards of hope for not just our own member states, but for every country and nation in the Americas and beyond. We have been able to achieve great change together throughout our history as a unified body.

We stood against a mighty superpower that threatened us nuclear destruction. We stood by our allies and friends in Asia when they needed us most. We overcame our differences from within when we finally enjoined two long rivals as sister nations. We brought change and order to a region where dictatorships reigned freely and inconsequentially. As we meet here today, near the closing of 2017, I want to remind everyone here listening that what we fight for are not simply Anglo-American values or Western values. These are universal values that we are obligated to defend wherever it is in of need.

Let us not falter or waver in the midst of fears of retaliation. Together, we can achieve progress through collective action and steadfast cooperation. We are calling for an international consortium to convene together in protesting the unlawful acts of the Mexican government and the injustices it commits against their own people.

Now let me be clear. Do not be mistaken. I am not calling for military action or any intervention. It would not only spell disaster but cause devastation for countless of civilian lives. I pray that we will never have to see the merits in pursuing that path. However, what I am calling for is a tougher resolve. Just as we cannot choose to intervene in every single national decision, we cannot choose to sit idly for decisions that demand it. We cannot retreat from this problem, the problem is right there staring down on us. It is a problem that isn't just unique to Mexico. In fact, it can manifest anywhere. It is the seed of hatred and fear that encourages the rise of such toxic ideologies that compels nations to rise against other nations.

We must do everything in our power to resist and to reject any divisions that create a falsified sense of enmity. Extremism breeds a new generation who simply do not understand the kind of virtues we live for, we die for. The future must not belong to those who seek to rob the people of their resources and their sovereignty. It must be won by aspiring entrepreneurs, artists, economists, politicians, athletes, and more. We can forge something truly beautiful and it can only be done in the spirit of international fellowship and ambassadorial goodwill.

Together, we must stand in unison with the Mexican people who are living under the Syndicalist regime. History has shown time after time again that ultimately, the people will succeed and find a way. Even in the darkest hour, the path out of tyranny is also paved, but it can only be done if we open it ourselves. At a time where geopolitical turmoil is constantly growing more and more polarized, be it at home or abroad, it is this hope, yes the very same hope Carlos has for a freer society, that shall surely propel us to accomplishing mighty things. We must commit to our words and our principles and we must take action. Action is the only way to enact change.

And I am pleased to tell you that after years of separation, Carlos was miraculously reunited with his siblings and their father. They too found escape and I was able to take part in their reunion. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the human desire for peace and happiness that inspires me everyday to fight for justice. This should give us hope. Let us never lose sight of it. I hope that this will be a constant reminder as we work together on these three important days here that great work is ready to be done.

Thank you so very much. God bless you and God bless the Conference of American States. Peace unto all nations.

END 10:41 A. M. EDT