Mexico’s President AMLO condemns EU Parliament as ‘corrupt reactionary coup-plotters’

(Se puede leer este artículo en español aquí.)

Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador published a blistering statement denouncing the European Parliament as “flunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt” right-wing oligarch-backed opposition in his country.

López Obrador, who is known popularly by the acronym AMLO, criticized the European Union’s lawmaking body for meddling in Mexico’s internal affairs, and implored its members to “evolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions.”

Noting that he has a 66% approval rating, which is higher than any leader in Europe, AMLO stressed, “Don’t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.”

López Obrador made these trenchant remarks in response to a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by the European Parliament on March 10, which condemned Mexico for allegedly violating the freedom of the press and the rights of journalists.

While it is true that the level of violence against journalists in Mexico is very high, this has been a consistent problem for decades. The European Parliament resolution, however, blamed President AMLO’s “populist rhetoric” for the death of reporters, despite the fact that he has only been in power since December 2018.

López Obrador has criticized corporate media outlets in his country, many of which are owned by right-wing oligarchs and have been notoriously biased against him and his progressive government. Major newspapers have published demonstrably false stories and propaganda to try to sabotage AMLO’s ambitious project of social change, called the Fourth Transformation.

Some of these right-wing anti-AMLO journalists have been funded by the US government and EU through interventionist soft-power organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and European Endowment for Democracy.

European Parliament supports coups across Global South

The European Parliament resolution condemning Mexico was approved with 607 votes in favor, and just two against, with 73 abstentions.

The EU’s law-making body has a long history of supporting coups, regime-change operations, and interventionist policies across the Global South.

In 2019, the European Parliament recognized unelected US-appointed coup leader Juan Guaidó as supposed “president” of Venezuela, in another overwhelming vote of 439 for and 104 against, with 88 abstentions.

Later that same year, the European Parliament supported a violent far-right coup against Bolivia’s democratically elected socialist president, Evo Morales, the first and only indigenous leader in the history of the nation-state.

The European Parliament even honored Bolivian coup leader Jeanine Añez in 2021 by making her a finalist for its prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after a Western-backed right-wing anti-Soviet dissident. (The prize that year ended up going to Western-sponsored Russian regime-change activist Alexei Navalny, a far-right nationalist who has demonized Muslim immigrants as “cockroaches” and participated in racist marches with skinheads.)

The EU praised Añez as a hero while ignoring the fact that she was a corrupt and brutal right-wing dictator who oversaw massacres of indigenous pro-democracy protesters and violently repressed progressive social movements, while imposing neoliberal shock therapy policies, privatizing state assets and selling them off to foreign corporations for pennies on the dollar.

Comunicado del gobierno de la República al Parlamento Europeo.https://t.co/VNfogiVCX9 pic.twitter.com/IylpebkJGx

— Gobierno de México (@GobiernoMX) March 11, 2022

President López Obrador: ‘We are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country’

The office of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wrote the following letter to the European Parliament on March 10. Multipolarista has translated it from its original Spanish into English, and published the statement in full below:

“To the members of the European Parliament:

“Enough with the corruption, lies, and hypocrisies.

“It is unfortunate that you all are allowing yourself to become flunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt group that is opposed to the Fourth Transformation, driven by millions of Mexicans to confront the monstrous inequality and violence inherited by the neoliberal economic policies that were imposed on our country for 36 years.

“Know, European lawmakers, that Mexico has ceased to be a land of conquest, and, as in very few occasions in your history, it values freedom-loving principles like equality and democracy.

“Here no one is repressed; the freedom of expression and work of journalists is respected. The state does not violate human rights like happened with previous governments, when you all, by the way, were complicit in your silence.

“Mexico is a pacifist country that has chosen non-violence, and we support dialogue, not war. We don’t send weapons to any country under any circumstance, as you all are doing now.

“If we were in the situation that you all describe in your resolution, our president would not be supported by 66% of the citizens, as was published yesterday in a poll by the firm Morning Consult, which puts him [López Obrador] in second place among the presidents of the world’s largest countries.

“By the way, that is higher approval than European leaders.

“For the next [declaration], inform yourselves and carefully read your resolutions before voting.

“And don’t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.

“Evolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions. You all are not the world government.

“And don’t forget what was said by that giant of the Americas, President Benito Juárez: ‘Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.'”