Quase um século atrás

1) “I am going to teach [them] to elect good men.”

--President Woodrow Wilson, referring to his decision in 1914 to invade Mexico. (Quoted in Peter Smith, Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S.-Latin American Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. page 51.)

2) Em "MONARCHY AND WAR", Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn*:

"(...) In February 1914, Mr. Wilson thought that the Mexicans would be much happier if, politically, they imitated the United States, which inturn had imitated France.71

This worried Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Minister. Between him and American Ambassador Walter Hines Page, a curious dialogue developed.

The theme was Mexican reluctance to adopt a full-fledged democracy, which theUnited States, after all, had fostered and abetted in Mexico even before they had supported Benito Juarez, the murderer of Emperor Maximilian.72

The exchange of opinions went as follows:

Grey: Suppose you have to intervene, what then?
Page: Make ’em vote and live by their decisions.
Grey: But suppose they will not so live?
Page: We’ll go in again and make ’em vote again.
Grey: And keep this up for 200 years?
Page: Yes. The United States will be here for 200 year sand it can continue to shoot them for that little space till they learn to vote and rule themselves.73
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71 I often ask American audiences where in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution one finds the words “democracy” and “republic.” Their surprise is great when they learn that neither appears in either document. When I tell them that, according to Charles Beard, the Founding Fathers hated democracy more than Original Sin, they are surprised. Nor are they delighted when I tell them that after 1828, their country hadgone to the French School.
72 The Duce was given his Spanish first name by his anarchist father. It was Benito (instead of Benedetto) in honor of Benito Juarez, who had a monarch executed. The fasces, we must remember, are a republican symbol, and Fascism found its full realization only in the Republica Sociale Italiana, with the seat in Salo.
73 See Burton J. Hendrick, The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, vol. 1(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1925), p. 188."