Mexican President Lopez Obrador has responded to a U.S. State Department report on the Central American country’s Human Rights record.
The U.S. report mentions corruption and the violation of people’s rights by members of the security forces, as well as the failure on the part of Mexico’s judiciary to prosecute certain crimes.
“What if we evaluate their [the USA’s] record on human rights?” asked the President during a speech delivered to members of the press, referring to the high-profile case of Julian Assange by way of example: “Why don’t you free Assange? If you’re talking about journalism and freedom, why do you keep Assange in prison?”
In the same vein, he attacked the U.S. on its aggressive geopolitics and presumed violation of international law:
And if we speak about [are concerned with] acts of violence: How is it that a prize-winning journalist now assures us that the U.S. government sabotaged a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe? That’s how it goes.
Appealing to the concerns of ordinary U.S. Americans, the Mexican president referred to the often under-reported epidemic of addiction to legal drugs:
Why is it permitted in the U.S. for a cartel, or several cartels, to freely distribute Fentanyl? [A drug] that does so much damage to the young [in the United States?]. Just to mention [a few issues]. What are you doing for the young, what are you doing to stop them from consuming Fentanyl?
Finally, Lopez Obrador turned to the divided political climate in the U.S., and the politicization of the judiciary, precisely one of the issues brought to bear by the U.S. State Department report with respect to Mexico:
Another issue, with all due respect: President Trump—ex-President Trump—is saying that he is going to be detained … over an issue of alleged (as a lawyer would say) amorous [entanglement]. [He says] that they’re going to detain him. If this happens, everyone would know (because we weren’t born yesterday) that it is being done to prevent him [Trump] from running for office.
Empathizing with the ex-President, Lopez Obrador added that this was done to him as well, albeit, in Mexico, the supposed trumped-up charge was not ultimately successful in derailing the elections: “And if I can say this, it is because I suffered from the fabrication of charges [against me], because they did not want me to stand as a [Presidential] candidate.”
Finally, the Mexican president concluded his remarks on the issue with a call to democratic integrity, deploying U.S. American rhetoric against his critics: “These things are completely anti-democratic. Why not let the people decide?”
