Mexico City / Washington. The government of President Joe Biden will not intervene in Mexico’s internal affairs, but the time is approaching to say something, especially on the issue of democratic backsliding, says Duncan Wood, Vice President of Strategy at the Wilson Center during an event organized yesterday September 28, by journalist José Buendía.
After President Biden sent a recorded message to President López Obrador on the occasion of the celebration of 200 years of Mexico’s independence, several federal government officials tried to translate the detail as a demonstration of the good relationship between the two governments, However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s cancellation to attend last Monday’s event sends another signal.
US officials whom Duncan Wood has consulted in Washington reveal that “they do not want to sacrifice an important relationship, if problems can be solved (due to non-compliance with what was agreed in the T-MEC) through the legal instances proposed by the same trade agreement. ”Says Wood.
Regarding the democratic backsliding, he indicates several examples: “We have seen several attacks against institutions, such as the National Electoral Institute (INE); attacks on civil society; attacks on scientists and; attacks on the media ”.
“Here in Washington, it worries,” concludes Duncan Wood.
Brenda Estefan, international analyst and former official at the Mexican embassy in Washington and at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), comments that President Biden has not acted against President López Obrador “because he has a very complex international agenda: the departure of Afghanistan or its conflict with France (due to the nuclear alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom, and the cancellation of the submarine purchase contract).
However, after various criticisms of President López Obrador towards the United States, “provocations have been tolerated due to the complexity of the relationship,” Estefan indicates.
White House response
On September 16, the presence of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel as the president’s star guest during the military parade, “was a direct provocation, they tried to elicit a reaction. Blinken did not go to Mexico to compensate for the presence of the “Cuban dictator during the parade,” says the vice president of the Wilson Center.
“The way President Biden reacts is not brutal like Donald Trump did.
“President López Obrador has criticized the United States a lot because it helps (through USAID) an NGO (Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción). And his response (from Biden) was: give more money ”to the NGO.
One of Washington’s red lines in its relationship with Mexico is that “there is a pattern of behavior: AMLO and Morena are much more authoritarian than desirable, in the opinion of many in Washington. That is why it could threaten the stability of the country ”.
Colombian President Iván Duque visited the Wilson Center last week. Regarding the project to disappear the OAS, Duque told Wood that it seemed “absurd” not to count on the United States.
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