NEW YORK.- A growing movement of Mexican migrants in the United States rejects the appointment of Jorge Islas López as coordinator of the Mexican Consulates, alleging abuses during his management as Consul General of Mexico in New York and not being a career diplomatic official .
On October 3, the newly appointed Secretary of Foreign Relations (SRE), Juan Ramón de la Fuente, appointed Islas López as head of this coordination, but a few days later the appointment received criticism from organized immigrants in the Big Apple who even They belong to the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party, the same party to which President Claudia Sheinbaum belongs.
“We believe that he is not a character who is capable of carrying out changes in the consulates as a coordinator, since, well, in New York he did not do an effective job,” said Isaac Ramírez, member of the Morena Committee One in New York.
He added that Islas López dismissed requests for improvement at the Mexican Consulate, in addition to refusing to meet with migrants and prioritizing private events.
“The indignation that, since he did not do much here, other than pure closed meetings, he never gave an account of his actions, he never called, as he had been asked at the beginning of his mandate, general meetings with the community [migrante]where people could come and we could express ourselves and we could make requests, organize ourselves,” Ramírez criticized in a virtual interview along with other Mexican migrants.
Teresa García, also a resident and activist in New York, criticized the work of Islas López and warned that there are even official complaints against him for abuse of power.
“You don’t qualify to be able to do a job like that.” […]he doesn’t care about doing the work at the Consulate, he doesn’t care about poor people. In fact, we have a testimony from a Consul, who says that she told the countrywomen, since we are short, short, she referred to us as chonas, the chonas,” García said. “Then they have an attitude that is not the attitude that a person in charge of a consulate should have, but much less of a Government that says it is in favor of the poor and the vulnerable.”
The rejection of López Islands also occurs in California and Chicago, two of the states with the most Mexican migrants. In California alone, for example, there are 10 consulates, including major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
Maggie González, a migrant activist in Los Angeles, joined the complaint to the SRE for the designation of Islas López, considering that it does not understand migrants.
“I don’t know who they are who elect these types of public servants. Here for us migrants, it should be someone who is really focused on our people, on all of us as migrants, because enough of coming to deceive us,” he considered. “Because not only is it in New York, it is in all the consulates that there is much, much to do. And these representatives, the truth is, I have not seen them work, as Mr. Luis Gutiérrez was named there, and we never saw him. So, we want a person who really does his job, who does it in all the consulates, because it is very easy to put them there.”
The activist is referring to Luis Gutiérrez Reyes, who was head of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad, a position now occupied by Tatiana Clouthier, whom activists see as having a better profile to serve the consulates.
The movement against López Islands also reaches Illinois and Chicago, where migrant activists support the position of their colleagues from New York, as José Pérez expressed.
He even considered that President Sheinbaum’s government should install consulate evaluation committees.
“[Es necesario] a committee from each consulate, in this case in Chicago, a committee that checks the consulates,” he explained. “In this case, remember that each consulate is different due to the population, it is not the same consulate in New York, in Chicago […] We all have different types of population; in New York there are more poblanos; here in Chicago, more Michoacans, more Jaliscienses.”
Migrant Force joins
The organization Fuerza Migrante, the largest network of activists of Mexican descent or origin in the US, joined the call for Chancellor De la Fuente to reconsider the appointment of Islas López, who was Attorney General of UNAM during the Rectorate. of De la Fuente until 2008.
“The human rights commission of Fuerza Migrante […] “has received multiple communications from members of the community based in the United States, to express their concern regarding the recent appointment of Dr. Jorge Islas López, as General Coordinator of the Mexican Consulates in this country,” says the official position of Fuerza Migrante. “This appointment has generated concern among those who have experienced firsthand the challenges and obstacles that the community faces regarding care in the Mexican consulates. Therefore, we urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reconsider this designation.”
The organization considers that the head of this coordination must be a professional with a “diplomatic career” and “with sufficient sensitivity” to address the problems of migrants in consulates.
The silence of the SRE
This newspaper requested the position of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, but until the publication of this article there was no response.
Former consul Islas López has not expressed his position on the growing movement in the United States by migrants against him, but on October 14 he published on platform X, formerly Twitter, his position on an article by Graciela Rock, who He worked at the Consulate General of Mexico in New York as of 2020.
In the text published on October 11 in an article in Opinión 51, Rock testifies to the verbal violence and workplace harassment he faced from Islas López.
“Mr. Islas did not limit himself to the use of violent language and insulting personal references, he addressed me without any respect or restraint in his verbal attacks; “He belittled my work, my experience and training, referring in a condescending manner to my functions or proposals, clearly I did not inspire him with any respect,” says part of the article.
The former consul denies the accusations and cites an incident caring for migrants that forced him to reassign Rock to the consulate.
The activists shared with this newspaper a document they obtained from the Transparency Unit of the Mexican Ministry of Public Administration, which confirmed that there are at least six complaints under investigation against Islas López.
The document is dated April 8, 2021 and does not specify the reasons for the complaints.
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