JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

2011] MEXICO IN A REGION UNDER CHANGE 33
back role. The exception to this low-key approach has been the former Partido
de las Águilas Mexicanas (Party of the Mexican Eagles), which in 1996
changed its name to Consejo del Pueblo de las Águilas Mexicanas (The
People’s Council of Mexican Eagles). Its ideology, dubbed as “neo-Mexicanism,”
promotes an idealized image of Mexico’s Indian past and scorns
Europe’s role in forging the national identity. Its open activity declined and
the Tribunal Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Tribunal) denied its petition
to be registered. The Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute)
issued an open letter condemning the group’s antisemitic, racist, and
intolerant views.
Mexican antisemitism, which has seldom manifested itself through
physical violence, can be traced basically to the level of the narrative and
the discursive realm. It is through media discourses that negative representations
are built, transmitted, and recreated.
The yearly report by Tribuna Israelita 11 shows a significant decline
from 2009 to 2010 in Mexico in the number of published notes (from
10,721 to 6,624, or –38.21%), including news reports, op eds, and newspaper
editorials related to Jewish and Israeli issues. When looking at each
classified category separately, only the number of cartoons increased (from
12 in 2009 to 64 in 2010). 12
This pattern seems to be related to the decreased impact on Mexican
public opinion that the “Flotilla Affair” had in comparison to the impact of
Operation Cast Lead, which appears to be consistent with the 2010 World
Report by the Stephen Roth Center at Tel Aviv University. 13
According to the criteria developed by Tribuna Israelita, 11.37% of the
classified published notes in 2010 were negative. 14 In contrast, only 1.23%
were positive (while 87.65% were considered neutral). The percentage of
negative news in the corresponding section was far lower than the percentage
of negative editorials (including opinion and newspaper editorials),
cartoons, and letters (1.54% for news compared to 46.54% for editorials,
23.44% for cartoons. and 47.92% for letters). Here again there is a gap
between the percentage of negative news reported and the percentage of
11. I thank Yael Siman for her valuable collaboration, Renée Dayán and
Tribuna Israelita for the data provided.
12. Report on Antisemitism, 2010, México, Tribuna Israelita. 2010.
13. Cf. “General Analysis. Overview” in Antisemitism Worldwide 2010. General
Analysis. The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, The Stephen Roth
Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, and The Kantor
Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. Tel Aviv University, European
Jewish Congress. http://www.tau.ac.il/Antisemitism/.
14. In this classification, there is no explicit differentiation between antisemite,
anti-Israeli, and anti-Zionist arguments.