The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, lashed out this Wednesday against Mexican civil society organizations that receive funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which he accused of "interventionism" in Mexico. .
In a letter that the Mexican president sent to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, he accused his government of financing what he described as "organizations openly opposed to the legal and legitimate government that I represent," including defenders of freedom of expression and policy analysts. public.
"It is clearly an interventionist act, contrary to international law and the respect that must prevail between free and sovereign States," the president said at his morning press conference on Wednesday.
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López Obrador's statements occurred in the framework of the visit to Mexico of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, White House adviser for National Security, who discussed issues of migration and drug trafficking, and after the newspaper Milenio published a report on increased USAID funding to non-governmental organizations in Mexico working on issues related to democracy and human rights.
Noticias Telemundo requested confirmation from USAID about the increase in the amounts reported by Milenio, which cited a budget plan for 2024 sent to the US Congress, which includes the following increases: from three million 900,000 dollars to five million for the category of Support for Society Civil;
from six million 870,000 for Human Rights to 10 million;
and from 56 million to 60 million dollars for strengthening the rule of law.
However, we did not immediately get a response.
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, on May 3, 2023. Mario Guzmán / EFE
In the document that justifies the budget of Congress for the State Department, including the USAID agency, 75 million dollars requested for 2023 are listed under the heading of the Economic Aid Fund for Mexico, although the items are not broken down.
Despite the fact that funding from US taxpayers through USAID to civil organizations in Mexico has been done since before the country's democratic transition in 2000, López Obrador accused that organizations critical of the Mexican government.
López Obrador ended his letter to Biden by saying that he was "sure" that the US president "is unaware of this matter", for which he "respectfully asked for his valuable intervention."
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The Mexican president has criticized on multiple occasions certain civil society groups that have exercised functions of counterweight to the Government or surveillance of federal public policies and this Wednesday he pointed out Article 19 and México Evalúa for allegedly receiving funding from USAID.
Recently, López Obrador also accused the Pentagon of spying on the Mexican Army.
Noticias Telemundo contacted the two non-governmental organizations, which defend freedom of expression and accountability of the authorities, respectively, for comment, with no immediate response.
In a radio interview with Enfoque Noticias, Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director for Mexico and Central America of Article 19 —the organization that defends journalists and human rights activists that has denounced the murder of almost 40 communicators in Mexico so far from the Government of López Obrador - affirmed that the president's statements were "a distraction".
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"It is part of the discourse to which, unfortunately, we are already accustomed, it is a way of avoiding the central problems, precisely one of them is violence against the press, where Mexico leads the not noble list of the most lethal countries for journalism," said Maldonado. .
And he added: "The sources of financing are transparent, they have been on our page for years, it is not new."
On its website, USAID describes itself as the world's largest public agency for international financing of development and the promotion of democratic values, operating in countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
"We advance American prosperity through investments that expand markets for American exports; create a level playing field for American business; and support more stable, resilient, and democratic societies. As the world's leader in humanitarian assistance, we stand with the people when a disaster strikes or a crisis arises.
