Friday, January 15, 2021 at 11:28 AM
Par Khalid EL HARRAK
Rabat – Fervent defender of the national cause wherever he teaches and gives lectures, the professor of international relations at the Mexican University of the Americas in Puebla, where he also directs the research center on globalization “NEJMAROC”, Mohamed Badine El Yattioui has spent several years of his career moving back and forth between two cultures and two geographic areas, Morocco and Latin America.
Hispanophone par excellence (but also a follower of the language of Molière, as he is the product of the French university), Mr. El Yattioui has the rare characteristic among bilingual authors of translating himself to face lies and false information conveyed for more than 40 years by the “polisario”, especially in Latin American countries.
This was the case almost two years ago at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The university professor had just finished his conference on “the geopolitical and geoeconomic strategy of Morocco in Africa”, after having recalled the context of the cold war and its repercussions on the question of the Moroccan Sahara and made it obvious that the referendum option is obsolete being incompatible with the historical and sociological reality of the region.
Without blinking, and at no charge, he answered questions from the audience with a learned speech, while exposing the fallacious allegations conveyed by the separatists, at the risk of a direct confrontation on the ground with the separatists, which sometimes exposes him to verbal violence, or even to attempts to prohibit public speaking.
Fortunately, there are also moments of relaxation, of friendship, with this small cosmopolitan world of academics, engineers, financiers and managers, gathered within the Council of Moroccan executives established in Mexico, which he chairs. with the aim of actively participating in the development of cooperation between the two countries, by serving as a platform for exchanges, meetings, reflection and proposals.
This structure aims to enhance the image of Morocco in this country by taking advantage of the quality and professional diversity of its members, and to help build bridges between the two peoples, underlined Mr. El Yattioui in a declaration to the MAP.
Author of some twenty articles on different themes and several forums on the national question in three languages, the Franco-Moroccan academic, who lived between Tangier, Lyon and Mexico City, first wrote in French before “ contact ”with Latin America and to focus on Spanish.
“Within the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP), which is a private institution, I carry out various research projects devoted to geopolitics, global governance and international security. I teach these disciplines there in French, English and Spanish ”, he said.
He is also an associate professor at two public universities: the BUAP in Puebla and the prestigious UNAM in Mexico City.
For him, “this experience is very enriching because before the pandemic I traveled extensively within the country to give lectures. I took the opportunity to talk about Morocco, its institutions and its foreign policy mainly. I also made research stays in Colombia and Cuba during my doctoral thesis devoted to United States / Latin America relations. I also took the opportunity to talk about the originality and relevance of the Moroccan model with university colleagues ”.
After the baccalaureate, obtained in 2001, he obtained a license, a master’s 1 in History and a master’s 2 in Political Science / International Relations at the University Jean Moulin Lyon III. In 2015, he defended his doctoral thesis in Political Science, which focused on relations between the United States and Latin America in the same institution, in which he has been teaching since January 2012.
“During my doctoral research, I made research trips to Cuba, Colombia and Oxford. The Mexican adventure will begin as a visiting professor at UDLAP for a semester in 2016. I will not leave this country again, becoming an associate professor. Over time, I became an associate professor at two public universities in this country: UNAM and BUAP ”, he noted.
Born in France, Mr. El Yattioui travels to Morocco twice a year, combining family visits and professional activities. In fact, the Moroccan academic collaborates with ALTER FORUM Internacional to organize the Laâyoune congress twice a year in the presence of researchers from many countries (Morocco, Latin America, Europe).
“In 2019, I was appointed vice-president of the scientific council of the Alter Forum International institute devoted to Saharan Studies in Laâyoune. A real pride allowing to develop research projects with my country. My task mainly lies in the coordination of research projects and their promotion, mainly in Latin America. This region, little known and little studied in Morocco, offers great prospects for future university collaborations ”, he said.
Great enemy of the representatives of the Polisario in Latin America, the Moroccan academic has exhausted the Latin American researchers who continued to echo the allegations of the separatists.
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