Drone

Publicly, of course, those same oil-producing nations—Venezuela the most vociferous among them—decried the attacks on the PEMEX facility as an attack not just on an oil facility, but on the entire global marketplace, driven as it was by the free flow of petroleum. The Venezuelans claimed that America was just another “fading superpower” that was simply lashing out in a vain, unbridled attempt to crush the emerging Mexican economy. Socialist, Marxist, and racialist explanations were soon forthcoming from the usual sources both inside and outside of the United States.

But it was the UN secretary-general who surprised everybody when he introduced a resolution approving the most recent findings of the self-appointed Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), whose members included the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, along with luminaries from the entertainment and financial industries. Myers’s unilateral actions had struck a sensitive nerve with the secretary-general and he’d long sought a means to combat them. The Mexican oil rig attack had finally given him the opportunity. Privately, the Russian delegation encouraged the secretary-general in his efforts.

The essential finding of the GCDP was that the War on Drugs was not only a failure but actually fueled other social crises, including the spread of HIV/AIDS. The GCDP was distinctly “antiwar” in every sense and advocated that all international efforts to curb drug use must focus exclusively on the prevention and treatment of drug abuse. The UN secretary-general called for a vote. He wanted the United Nations to formally affirm the GCDP’s finding.

In other words, the UN was voting against the Americans’ highly militarized approach to the drug problems their nation faced. What was particularly stinging about the resolution was that the GCDP findings were presented to the General Assembly by two other GCDP commissioners: a former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and a former secretary of state, both distinguished Americans. The nonbinding resolution passed with an overwhelming majority. Understandably, the United States protested and, ultimately, abstained from the vote.

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The mainstream media picked up the UN story and ran with it, along with interviews with the oil rig survivors, including three Americans. Hospitalized in a medically induced coma, Bill Gordon was so badly burned that both of his arms had to be amputated above the elbows. But it was his video that had identified the Reaper as an American aircraft.

The Mexican government expressed its outrage in no uncertain terms. President Barraza, guided by Hernán’s counsel, began a national tour of historic sites, promoting Mexican nationalism and patriotic fervor. He was careful, however, to play up the victim angle, pledging to “resist as far as humanly possible the natural desire for justice and revenge that the Mexican people are calling for,” which was actually true after the oil rig attack.

The oil rig attack, coupled with the anti-Myers media blitz, fueled further protests in the United States. Whereas before the protestors had numbered only in the hundreds, the new protestors actually numbered in the tens of thousands. The biggest concentrations were in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, and New York, all cities with significant Hispanic populations.

Worse, the protests coincided with a “Day Without a Mexican” strike. As the day unfolded across the nation, America woke up to a new kind of “brownout.” Anglo America discovered that their yards weren’t being cut, their pools weren’t being cleaned, their cars weren’t being washed, and their burgers weren’t being flipped.

This strange rapture of cheap service labor wasn’t limited to the wealthy, either. Even middle-class families were hit by the startling phenomenon. Whole restaurant chains—from the high-end sit-downs to the lowliest fast-food drive-thrus—suddenly shut their doors. Busboys, valets, checkout girls, fry cooks, sous chefs, and managers hadn’t shown up for work, either.

In Texas, freeway construction ground to a halt. In Iowa and Arkansas, the meat-slaughtering plants shut down. Home building and city services (especially garbage, sewer, and landscaping) nearly collapsed in the major urban areas. In the rural areas, farms and food processors that depended on the backbreaking and mind-numbing labor of pickers, handlers, and sorters could no longer function.