Mexico is losing its Latin American foreign policy base

Saint Joseph.—If the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries serves the president Mexicoleftist Andrés Manuel Lopez ObradorTo justify their silence in the face of human rights, political and electoral violations in the country Cuba, Venezuela And NicaraguaWhy did the president ignore the same main principle of Mexican foreign policy and decide to interfere in the internal affairs of Ecuador, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia?

Although Mexico has lost its position as a foreign policy reference latin america and the Caribbean in the 2000s, with the presidency of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) and Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), the process continued with the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2001-2018) and was further strengthened. Power with Lopez Obrador from 2018.

On the pedestal to which it rose in the twentieth century, Mexico achieved its independence at that time in a bipolar world – the United States, the capitalist leader, and the United States. soviet union (It disappeared in 1991), and was a stronghold of communism – with initiatives such as achieving the ban on nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1967 in the Mexican capital.

Read also: Ecuadorian politicians, including former President Correa, criticized the raid on the Mexican embassy to arrest Glass

Without being “impartial,” Mexico sought to achieve equal distance with it wash– tons and Moscow and defended regional sovereignty in front of the two blocs. In an issue added to Lopez Obrador's policy of non-interference, and its application to some countries but not others, the latest confrontation broke out the day before yesterday with Ecuador. In the face of these and other questions, the Mexican government has been firmly committed to respecting the principle of non-interference.

Quito declared that day undesirable for the Mexican ambassador to Ecuador, Raquel Seror, disavowing the fact that López Obrador cast doubt last Wednesday on the presidential and legislative elections scheduled for August and October 2023 in that country. The president claimed that a political assassination in that campaign harmed leftist opposition leader Luisa Gonzalez, whom he described as a progressive candidate for the opposition Citizens' Revolution Movement. The comment upset the government President of Ecuadorthe rightist Daniel Noboawinner of the competition.

“López Obrador clearly has a double standard. “As they say, everything is for my friends, for my enemies… the law,” said criminologist, political scientist, sociologist and theologian José Luis Pérez, a professor at the (non-governmental) Universidad Pacifico in Peru. Lime. When he says he doesn't talk about foreign policy, it doesn't suit him. The criterion is not democracy or not, dictatorship or not. It's whether they're your friends or not. If they are your political friends, all is well. “If they are your enemies or ideological rivals, everything is bad,” Perez told EL UNIVERSAL. He said: “There are abusive and wrongful dictatorial actions, whether from the left or the right, that go beyond the law.”

“There are actions that are in themselves politically incorrect, whether they are from the left or the right. Abusive and dictatorial acts that go beyond the law, from the left or the right. “They are wrong,” he said. In contrast to Ecuador, Lopez Obrador yesterday avoided entering into an argument with his political partner and questioned Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro, rebuking him for the obstacles facing the opposition to hold free and fair elections in July of this year in that country.

Read also: Mexico cuts its relations with Ecuador. What does the Vienna Convention say about the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters?

For Venezuelan social media Griselda Colina, director of the (NGO) Global Observatory on Communication and Democracy (NGO), in Caracas, a key factor stood out when López Obrador alluded to Venezuela yesterday. “His body expressions and gestures indicate his discomfort when referring to this topic,” Colina said. “Democracy requires firm behavior and statements,” he said.

Lopez Obrador's silence differs from the concerns raised by the leftist presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the week before Maduro. Lopez Obrador avoided giving his opinion, which is why opponents and the international community denounced it as an electoral farce in 2021 in Nicaragua by the leftist president of that country, Daniel Ortega, for his re-election.

Facing the 2023 elections in Argentina that brought far-right Javier Miley to the presidency, López Obrador seemed to put non-interference in the internal affairs of the states aside, and was surprised that the Argentines, “being very smart,” chose this. The politician he described as a “faco-conservative.”

López Obrador intervened in Peru in December 2022, when Peru's then-president, leftist Pedro Castillo, failed to carry out a coup. The Peruvian Congress impeached him and appointed Vice President Dina Boluarte in his place.

López Obrador refused to recognize her as president, accused her of being a usurper and defended Castillo's legitimacy. In May 2023, the Peruvian Congress declared López Obrador persona non grata for refusing to hand over the rotating presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Boluarte. Mexico yesterday granted political asylum to Ecuadorian Jorge Glass, Vice President from 2016 to 2018, and asylum at the Mexican Embassy in Quito since December 17, 2023. Ecuador described Mexico's decision as illegal, noting that Glass was sentenced to prison on charges of bribery and illegal assembly and has An arrest warrant for embezzlement, he confirmed that under the 1954 Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, it is illegal to grant asylum for ordinary crimes. Ecuador refused to grant Glass safe passage to leave Ecuador and asked Mexico to hand him over to Ecuadorian justice.