One of the most popular “conspiracy theories” making the rounds of the Internet is that the United States will soon merge with Canada and Mexico to form a single large “country” called the North American Union, or NAU, with a common currency. In fact, the idea has gained so much traction online that a Google search of the term “North American Union” returns more than 1 million hits.
According to the theory, George W. Bush signed an agreement called the Security and Prosperity Partnership with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005 to make the North American Union a reality by 2010.
The NAU would be the North American equivalent of the European Union, which unites all of the countries of Europe under a common currency. As Lou Dobbs told his CNN viewers,1 “This is, no matter what anyone tells you, a very serious and unprecedented challenge to the sovereignty of our nation.”
Among the group’s plans, according to conspiracy theorists, are the building of a giant “NAFTA super-highway” that would stretch from Canada to Mexico, and the replacement of the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and Mexican peso with a single currency called “the amero.”
To bolster their case, believers point to evidence such as a picture of a 20-amero copper coin on a blog created by Hal Turner. Turner insists that a friend who works in the U.S. Treasury smuggled the coin out of the U.S. Mint in Denver, and that the amero is proof that the U.S. government is clandestinely working to make the North American Union a reality.
In August 2007, conspiracy theorists had a field day when Bush met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Montebello, Quebec. Hundreds of activists captured the media spotlight outside the summit by waving signs that read “No to Americanada” and claiming the leaders were working on merging the countries.
Does such a secret plan really exist, or is it all nonsense? Let’s explore the truth behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the amero, and the NAFTA Super Highway.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, does exist, but it is merely a formal name given to the pledge between the three nations to...
