Isn’t that the craziest thing you have ever read? (Don’t answer that question — conservative media serves up a lot of crazy every day.) The source of this such nonsense is the Wall Street Journal on Monday, January 8th.
Is AMLO Blackmailing Biden?
The Wall Street Journal
Opinion by Mary Anastasia O’Grady
A joint U.S.-Mexico communiqué issued by the White House on Dec. 28 called “democratic decline” one of the root causes of heavy migration flows at the border between the two countries. Mexico’s release of the communiqué the same day, in Spanish, omitted that phrase.
Word has it that Mexico’s Foreign Ministry threw a hissy fit when it saw the White House’s assertion that there is a connection between repression—think Caracas, Havana and Managua—and large waves of emigration. Whether the U.S. tried to defend its language isn’t clear. But those words were rapidly struck from the White House post so that the amended communiqué matched the Mexican version.
It is clear to the WSJ, as will be repeated later, that the migrants coming to the USA from from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The Biden State Department have also stated that migrants coming to the USA are from this country. But López Obrador disagrees that this is sole reason for migration. And, in its actions, the Biden Administration has made it clear that they agree with López Obrador. The writer must have missed Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ visit to Guatemala in June 2021 (I was there at the time although not in the capital but the television coverage throughout Guatemala was thorough.). She was leading an effort to address the economic factors for migration. So there is no controversy that migrates are seeking to come to the USA because of economic opportunities.
Additionally. President López Obrador has continually talked about another reason for the migration: the gun crisis throughout the Americas. (The entire hemisphere). Gun violence is a huge driver behind migration. People just don’t feel safe in parts of Mexico, Central America, Colombia because the massive amount of US-made guns exported to these countries. And President López Obrador did not think the Biden Administration should over look that. In fact, it can be a huge political issue for President Biden as most US voters oppose the proliferation of these weapons in the USA and all over America (the hemisphere). You may recall hearing when the Mexican president by attempted to sue US gun manufacturers.
But, the WSJ rejects these providable facts. Instead, they see conspiracy:
A National Security Council spokesperson told me last week that “due to a version-control issue, the initial version of the document that we posted online included an additional phrase that had not been discussed with the Mexicans.”
Or perhaps more accurately, the phrase wasn’t approved by Mexico. Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser to the ministry, was quick to tweet the “corrected” communiqué posted on the White House website.
It must of been written on Hunter Biden’s laptop!
It would be nice to think that this incident was but a small blip in an otherwise healthy relationship between two North American democracies. It was no such thing. Instead it was the latest example of how the Biden administration bows to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on matters big and small.
To conservative media, of course, all liberals are pushovers and weak. After, Saint Ronnie and Glorious Leader Donald never listened to any other country (although Trump does love his autocrats.) So changing text on a communication that has no binding resolution and is probably read by 100 people in the entire world is proof that President Biden is President López Obrador’s puppet!
Tell us more!
AMLO has the upper hand with Mr. Biden because Mexico controls the migrant flows from Tapachula, on its border with Guatemala, to its northern border with the U.S. Mr. Biden needs Mexico’s cooperation as he strives to preserve reckless U.S. immigration policy and still get re-elected.
Now the Wall Street Journal needs a geography and history lesson for patterns of migration. Once can check the media feed of photojournalists Luis Echeverria who have documented the Guatemalan military blocking the migrant caravan from leaving their country. Please hold this thought about the migrant caravan — I’ll return to it below.
Let’s spew the standard garbage misinformation the conservative press serves up:
The world’s bullies are on the move in Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Biden is signaling weakness, as if it’s a secret progressive recipe for world peace. You don’t have to travel seven time zones to see how the Biden administration forfeits U.S. leadership. Ground zero is the Mexico-U.S. border.
But our author has a flair for the fun of a conspiraracy — there is secret progressive recipe for world peace! I hope it has Mole!
A majority of migrants crashing U.S. gates last year came from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, where tyranny has led to dire poverty. But that narrative is unspeakable in AMLO’s government.
The author has no intend of researching the actual well-documented thoughts expressed by President López Obrador as I have referenced above.
The old corporatist can abide neither the gringos nor market economics. He’s also a nationalist with a strong authoritarian streak who is trying to centralize power.
I sat at a lunch with President López Obrador and his wife and his staff last Wednesday after the event referenced in the photo above. He would be the first at the table to use accuse people like myself of being the old corporatist inflamed by the abuses of gringo activities in Latin America and the devastation of market economics on the periphery.
The last thing he wants is a coalition of democracies in the Americas, led by the U.S., pressuring him to respect human rights and the independence of institutions.
Of course, the Wall Street Journal’s respect for human rights is laughable. They give up the game: “independence of institutions” which equals the ability of multi-national corporations to not be bound by the sovereign laws enacted by a given nation. The WSJ does not multi-national corporations to be obligated to protect the environment, treat their workers fairly, or pay any local taxes for the profits being extracted from the periphery.
This explains his defense of the military dictatorships in the region. He blames the surge of huddled masses yearning to enter the U.S. on sanctions out of Washington. He’s been pushing hard to get them lifted.
President López Obrador’s opposition to assisting Ukraine and criticism of US support for Ukraine bothers many of us Mexicans. He will not answer for it at the ballot box. Past Mexican administration support other countries run by autocrats around the hemisphere has been the subject of public discussion for decades.
Mr. Biden hasn’t fully acquiesced. But at the margin he’s helping the tyrants. Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro still hasn’t ended the prohibition on Maria Corina Machado’s candidacy for president and arranged for a free election this year. Yet the U.S. has lifted oil and gas sanctions that were designed to force that to happen. Meantime the U.S. Embassy in Havana has been promoting Cuban tourism and co-sponsoring public concerts with a regime that holds more than 1,000 political prisoners in its dungeons and is an ally of Iran and Russia.
I guess the author, like many people in the USA never bother to read the Reuters article on the easing of sanctions.
Venezuelan oil has returned to global markets since Washington suspended sanctions on the OPEC producer for six months, until April.
Another six-month extension is likely as long as President Nicolas Maduro's government sticks to an electoral roadmap agreed with the opposition for a presidential election, JP Morgan analysts said.
"Late 2024 presidential elections in both countries would determine the longer-term fate of U.S. sanctions and Venezuelan oil production," they added.
But the WSJ is not done with their Mexico bashing:
Closer to home, Mexico is backsliding on the rule of law, and the U.S. remains eerily silent. One glaring example is the administration’s handling of Mexico’s violation of the energy chapter of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. In July 2022 the U.S. requested consultations on the matter, which involves discrimination against investors in oil, gas and renewables. The U.S. still hasn’t convened an arbitration panel. It’s been 536 days. Is protectionist U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asleep?
More likely, she’s been told not to upset AMLO, who wants to renationalize Mexican energy while avoiding the tariff retaliation permitted under the agreement.
President López Obrador won’t be a rubber stamp for corporations, wanting proper investigation of a number corporations that have been doing business in Mexico and not following our sovereign laws.
The Biden administration claims to be a great defender of democracy. It’s latest adventure is in Guatemala, where President-elect Bernardo Arévalo will be inaugurated Jan. 14. There is evidence that his Semilla party committed fraud in registering with electoral authorities, and some Guatemalans question his legitimacy. But rather than let the attorney general follow the constitution and allow debates in the public square play out, the Bidenistas, who favor Mr. Arévalo’s ideology, have chilled free speech by imposing new U.S. visa restrictions on some 300 critics. Those punished include a newspaper columnist. Once again, burning down democracy to save it.
Here is where I wanted to remember that thought about the migrant caravan being help at the border. The release of the caravan was done at the end of 2023 at the explicit direction of outgoing Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei. Giammattei is extracting one last bit of political revenge on President Biden and President López Obrador for neither assisting him in subversion democracy to place his chosen successor in his chair when he slinks away from the national stage this weekend. The WSJ dislikes the US visa restrictions based on well documented corruption charges investigated by a number of international bodies. The WSJ always liked the last two Guatemalan administrations that opened the country to the spoilers of the national resources to anyone looking to extract labor and resources without any environmental concerns in an atmosphere of political suppression of labor rights. Giammattei (and his predecessors Jimmy Morales) made sure their local cronies got their cut of the spoilers while the plundering a country of resources and gutting human rights and education opportunities.
It is quite obvious that the WSJ does not support the anti-corruption agenda stance of the incoming administration led by Bernardo Arévalo. In fact, they are crying that he and/or his political party committed fraud in registered to become a certified political party, Giammattei ‘s trumped charge against President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and Movimiento Semilla.
Meantime, Mexican democracy is rapidly deteriorating without objection. Property rights are becoming more uncertain. Last week the government seized a hydrogen plant owned by the French company Air Liquide and said it will now be run by the state-owned oil company Pemex. The military is gaining economic and political power, cartels are running wild, and independence of the electoral system is under assault.
I applaud the WSJ for pointing out the power of the Mexican military that has increased in the last dozen years. However, the WSJ concern for military power in Mexico is touching after all, they have spent the last ten years urging Mexican presidents to use military power to combat drug cartels and gang violence in the region.
You can read about the AIr Liquide dispute here although Mexican coverage of the situation focuses on the corporations inability to honor their part of their obligations.
The moral of the story is don’t mess with Uncle Sam unless you can blackmail him.
Write to O’Grady@wsj.com.
Gentle reader, you have read the WSJ case of the blackmailing of the US President. Did they convince you?
Thank you for reading.
Alejandro Morales
Last week President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stood at the place where Felipe Carrillo Puerto was executed exactly 100 years before.
En reconocimiento a la vida y a la obra de dicho personaje, este 2024 es declarado oficialmente por el Gobierno de México, a partir de una iniciativa presentada por el presidente de la República, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, como el “Año de Felipe Carrillo Puerto, benemérito del proletariado, revolucionario y defensor del Mayab”.
You can watch the event here. My family was there as well.
Hoy es un día dedicado a Felipe Carrillo Puerto, gran dirigente social al que le rendimos homenaje por actuar a favor de los pobres, de los desposeídos, de los indígenas, de los mayas y de las mujeres. Dedicaremos este último año de nuestro gobierno en su honor; habrá diversas actividades y el Aeropuerto Internacional de Tulum ya lleva su nombre.Tenemos que recordar a nuestros héroes, a los precursores de las transformaciones de Independencia, de Reforma, de Revolución y a lo que llamamos la Cuarta Transformación de la vida pública de México. No olvidemos que la historia es la gran maestra de la vida.Junto a autoridades e integrantes del Gabinete develamos la placa conmemorativa de los 100 años del aniversario luctuoso de Felipe Carrillo Puerto y colocamos una ofrenda floral.
Just in the interest full disclosure, in the 1990s in the WSJ in a review roundup of a number of economic books published about Central America, called my 1992 book about Nicaragua “last gasp of a Marxian counterculture bent on condemning those that have more possessions than the masses.” I am sure a few people around here would agree with that assessment but for the record because of my open disdain for capitalist driven development.