López Obrador raises the tone with the US for supporting civil organizations: "They are taking time"

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during a morning press conference.Presidency of Mexico HANDOUT / EFE

Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday raised the tone with the United States by urging Washington to suspend the alleged economic support to civil society organizations that the president calls "opponents." His government sent a diplomatic note earlier this month accusing the US embassy of financing NGOs such as Mexicanos contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad, one of Morena's usual targets, through the US Agency for International Development ( USAID). The president's claim supposes a more serious signal to the authorities of the neighboring country and occurs right in the middle of an escalation of tension due to commercial frictions and the breach by Mexico of the treaty with the United States and Canada, the T-MEC . "They are taking time," he emphasized.

“It is a clear example of interference, of intervention by the US Government in matters that only concern Mexicans.

That is why it was the diplomatic note.

It is proven, there were 2.5 million dollars in invoices, 34 invoices.

They not only go to this group, they go to other groups that have also done politics against us.

This is a violation of the Constitution, you cannot receive money from a foreigner to do political work in Mexico.

These US agencies are supposed to support members of so-called civil society.

But the truth is that this is a simulation, it is a disguise, ”López Obrador said during his morning press conference in reference to USAID, which is formally an independent body, but is linked to the State Department.

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The president has returned to show bills and has attacked Mexicans against Corruption, an organization that was also very critical of the governments of Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón. But López Obrador waged a battle against him, as with Article 19, dedicated to the defense of press freedom. The president has been working for months in the personal disqualification of his members and collaborators. And last week he came to show the photographs of members of his advisory council, which was described as an “intimidating act” by those affected, among them, the former Minister of the Court José Ramón Cossío, the writer and journalist Héctor Aguilar Camín, the political scientist Edna Jaime or economist Enrique Cárdenas.

These organizations carry out a job of oversight of public management and the Chief Executive is not willing to accept it. López Obrador tries to present them as opposition political platforms and, if his accusations are not new, the intensity of his appeal to Washington is. "It is as if the Mexican embassy in the United States gave money to opponents of the government," he said. The president has assured that there is "the commitment of the United States Government to carry out a review." "I think they are taking time, I mean it in a respectful way," he continued.

In his opinion "they should no longer be handing out money." “Nothing more than asking the INE to investigate is being naive. All of them are in the campaign against us [...]. Hopefully from this week they will cancel this support, because they continue to campaign ”, insisted the president. This speech, which has to do with his constant defense of the idea of ​​national sovereignty, has been heard on multiple occasions in Latin America, as have the accusations against USAID. It occurs constantly in Venezuela, where the Government of Nicolás Maduro has used the financing of the United States as an argument to suffocate civil and humanitarian organizations, Venezuelan and foreign. And also the Colombian extreme right, the current linked to former President Álvaro Uribe,He has charged international NGOs for their work documenting violence and abuses by the Armed Forces.

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