Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?
Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?
Maybe he has now done it, although I have been unable to find any reports of him doing so. But almost alone among world leaders, I think joined only by Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Mexicos’s President known as “AMLO” did not basically immediately congratulate Joe Biden on his inauguration. Even very pro-Trump Brazilian President Bolsonaro did, expressing a hope to have good and beneficial relations between the US and Brazil, and although it was rather perfunctory and unenthusiastic, so did Russia’s President Putin. But nothing out of AMLO, at least not right away.
Supposedly he somehow thinks that Biden is going to be less friendly than Trump. The one report I saw on this said that he views Trump as having taken a “hands-off” approach with him, although I remember Trump making demands that he crack on migrants passing through Mexico from Central America with threats of tariffs at odds with treaty agreements. This is hands-off? Anyway, somehow he supposedly thinks that Biden will interfere in Mexican affairs and try to tell him what to do, although I am completely unaware of a shred of evidence that Biden has said anything at all that would suggest that, although it is possible that he has and I simply have not been aware of it.
I posted here awhile ago about how it seemed that AMLO was favoring Trump, visiting him in the White House in September and making highly favorable comments. At the time I speculated that this might because he shares some authoritarian tendencies we have seen in Trump, with those only having become much clearer with his serious effort to overturn the US presidential election. Does AMLO’s delay in congratulation Biden mean that AMLO approved of these actions by Trump? I do not know, but this adds to my concerns about AMLO. I was criticized by some commenters for making this point about AMLO, who is mostly a political progressive and certainly has carried out some progressive policies in Mexico. But I see nothing good for people in Mexico in having their president alienating the incoming US president for what appears to be no good reason whatsoever.
Barkley Rosser
January 20, 2021
AMLO felicita a Biden por inicio de Presidencia en EU; ‘compartimos tres temas en común’
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-mexico/mexicos-president-says-spoke-by-phone-with-u-s-president-elect-biden-idUSKBN28U00D
December 19, 2020
U.S. President-elect Biden, Mexico’s president vow to cooperate on immigration
By Anthony Esposito – Reuters
MEXICO CITY – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday committed to work on a humane strategy to regional migration by addressing its root causes in Central America and southern Mexico.
The two leaders in a phone call “discussed working together on a new approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States,” a summary of the call provided by Biden’s team said….
Correcting the spacing:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/23/readout-of-president-joe-biden-call-with-president-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-of-mexico/January 23, 2021Readout of President Joe Biden Call with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of MexicoPresident Biden spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday to review bilateral cooperation on a range of bilateral and regional issues, particularly regional migration….
The spacing problem is the fault of the blog design.
The point however is that AMLO, of course, did not delay congratulating President Biden. The post is incorrect.
Demeaning the President of Mexico is, of course, unfortunate and uncalled for. The people of Mexico much admire President López Obrador.
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-mexicos-president-amlo
January 5, 2021
Approval Tracker: Mexico’s President AMLO
By Carin Zissis
Andrés Manuel López Obrador has maintained his popularity throughout the pandemic. As Mexico preps for June 2021 midterms, here’s how his approval looks over time.
Through December, 2020
Approval = 61%
Trying again to post the Whitehouse transcript, since this is important:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/23/readout-of-president-joe-biden-call-with-president-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-of-mexico/
January 23, 2021Readout of President Joe Biden Call with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of MexicoPresident Biden spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday to review bilateral cooperation on a range of bilateral and regional issues, particularly regional migration.
I am so sorry that the spacing still will not hold at times, but at least the link to the Whitehouse transcript works now.
AMLO was elected president as Mexico finally set aside decades of essentially single-party political control and resulting economic stagnation. AMLO has 6 years in all to drive and cement sorely needed political-economic changes in Mexico. The hope of ordinary Mexicans is with AMLO.
Anne,
Thanks for setting the record straight.
Ron,
I much appreciate you.
Indeed it seems that Biden and Lopez Obrador are now having friendly relations after the phone call Biden made to AMLO. Lopez Obrador’s initial speech about the inauguration, he did recognize it, was marked by various demands. For whatever reason he liked Trump personally and openly supported him for reelection, even though Trump’s popularity in Mexico never got above 6%, lowest in the world. But AMLO is definitely popular.
BTW, both the US and Mexico have pretty poor pandemic records, with deaths per million at 1,271 in US and 11,272 in Mexico (I just checked). This compares with 3.44 in China and a tenth of that in Taiwan.
BTW, the statements by Biden and Lopez Obrador after their phone call, which also mentioned cooperation on economic and pandemic policies, said nothing about cooperation in fighting drug cartels, with the prevoius efforts at cooperation having just collapsed due to actions taken in both nations. Not clear what if anything will come of that, with probably no action at least for awhile.
When one lives in the richest, most powerful nation on Earth, then it is natural to assume that one’s political expectations and biases are universal values. OTOH, who would want to walk a mile in another’s moccasins if that other had smaller feat?
if it hasn’t been mentioned, AMLO has recently tested positive for Covid 19, so he might currently be indisposed..