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Obrador calls US bankrolling of Mexican opposition groups 'shameful'

Tuesday, 22 February 2022 9:39 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 22 February 2022 11:01 AM ]

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers a speech on the third anniversary of his presidential election victory at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 1, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called on Washington to stop the “shameful” bankrolling of Mexican opposition groups, and refrain from intervening in the country’s internal affairs.

At a news conference on Monday, Obrador lashed out at the Joe Biden administration for not explaining why it finances political groups in Mexico that are opposed to his Fourth Transformation.

“We are asking the US government to no longer finance groups that act openly, opponents of governments, in my case, in our case, of a legally and legitimately constituted government, because it is an interventionist act, a violation of our sovereignty,” the Mexican president stressed.

“It is a ‘shame’ for any government in the world to get involved in the internal life of another country ... plus, handing over money,” he said, adding that the US behavior is a breach of Mexico’s sovereignty.

Obrador (AMLO) won a landslide victory in Mexico’s 2018 presidential election on the promise that he would lead a ‘Fourth Transformation’ (4-T) of the North American country, aimed at ending endemic corruption, criminal violence and deep-rooted socioeconomic inequality.

Obrador had warned the US in May last year against providing funds to political groups in Mexico.

Since last year, he has repeatedly insisted that groups such as ‘United Mexicans Against Corruption’ (MCCI), founded by entrepreneur Claudio X. González, with funds from the United States, have created impediments in his works, such as the Felipe Angeles International Airport and the Mayan Train.

As per media investigations, between 2019 and 2020, the group received financing of around 25 million pesos (1.2 million USD) from the US government, a report in Mexico Daily Post said.

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The rebuke comes in the wake of a dispute between the two neighbors over Obrador’s proposition to strengthen state control of the power market.

Biden administration has warned that the plan could limit investment in renewable energy.

In another row, US Senator Ted Cruz criticized Obrador’s leadership of the country. However, Mexican president was quick to hit back, saying that the critiques by Cruz “fill him with pride”.

“If he praised me, if he spoke well of me, maybe I would think that we are not doing things right,” Obrador said at a press conference last week.

US-Mexico relations have been at odds over a series of issues such as immigrants’ crisis, trade disputes and interventionist policies of the US.

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