MEXICO CITY (AP) — Historians and analysts on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump's administration of trying to rewrite his country's history to justify its own foreign policy decisions toward Latin America by publishing a "historically inaccurate" version of the war between Mexico and the United States.

The White House issued a statement on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the war, in which it described the conflict as a "legendary victory that secured the American Southwest, “It reaffirmed American sovereignty and expanded the promise of American independence across our majestic continent.” The statement compared that period in U.S. history to its own government's increasingly aggressive policies toward Latin America, which it said would “ensure that the Hemisphere remains safe.”

“Guided by our victory on the fields of Mexico 178 years ago, I have spared no effort to defend our southern border against invasion, maintain the rule of law, and protect our homeland from the forces of evil, violence, and destruction,” said the statement, which was not signed.

In its release, the White House makes no mention of the key role slavery played in the war and glorifies the broader period of “Manifest Destiny,” which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans from their lands.

The criticism

Alexander Aviña, a professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University, said the White House statement “minimizes the enormous amount of violence that was required to expand” the territory of the United States to the Pacific coast at a time when the Trump administration has meddled in Latin American affairs in a way that has not been seen in decades, capturing the president of Venezuela, interfering in electoral processes and threatening Mexico and other nations. with possible military actions.

“US political leaders have since seen this as an ugly aspect of US history, this is a pretty clear example of US imperialism against its southern neighbor,” Aviña said. “What the Trump administration is actually doing is embracing this chapter as something positive in American history and framing it, in a historically inaccurate way, as some kind of defensive measure to prevent an invasion of Mexico.”

Criticism of the White House statement spread quickly on social media on Tuesday.

When asked about the statement at her morning press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum laughed before pointing out: “sovereignty must always be defended.” Sheinbaum, who has a delicate relationship with the White House, has responded to Trump on previous occasions in a moderate manner although occasionally with a certain sarcastic tone, such as when the US president changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the United States.

Historical friction point

The Mexican-American War (1846–1848) was triggered by long-standing border disputes between the two nations and the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845. During the years before the war, Americans had gradually moved into the then Mexican territory. Mexico had outlawed slavery, and American abolitionists feared that the U.S. land grab was in part an attempt to add slave states.

After fighting broke out and successive U.S. victories, Mexico ceded more than 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 square kilometers) of territory to its northern neighbor, including what now comprises Arizona, California, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

The moment made Texas a key player during the United States Civil War and led to former president Ulysses S. Grant later wrote that the conflict with Mexico was “one of the most unfair ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker one.”

The Associated Press originated when five New York City newspapers funded a pony express route -- a faster service than the U.S. Postal Service -- through Alabama to carry news of the war with Mexico faster.

The war remains a historical sticking point between the two countries, particularly as Sheinbaum repeatedly reminds Trump that his country is a sovereign nation whenever the U.S. president talks about taking military action against the cartels. Mexicans and pressures the Mexican government to bend to their will.

The White House has ordered a rewrite of the history on display at the Smithsonian Institution, claiming it was “restoring truth and sanity to American history.”

The Trump administration has removed history, legal records and data it finds objectionable from government websites. Trump also ordered the government to remove any signs that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or present,” including those that reference slavery, the destruction of Native American cultures and climate change.

“This statement is in line with many others that attempt to whitewash and reframe American history and erase generations of historical scholarship,” Camarillo stressed.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a translation tool. Generative artificial intelligence.