FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
López Obrador Reasserts Mexico’s Principle of Non-Intervention in Other Nations’ Affairs
Jan. 8, 2019 (EIRNS)—Mexico is coming under great pressure for refusing to sign the “Lima Group” letter condemning Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s re-inauguration. Asked (twice) about that decision during his Jan. 7 press conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador answered at great length.
“Who has a [copy of the] Constitution out there?” he first asked the press corps. “Article 89 of the Constitution, Subsection 10. Let’s see, you should help me. There among my powers as President of the Republic—”
The journalist who asked the question began reading the relevant paragraph on the foreign policy powers of the Presidency. When he got to the statement, “the head of the Executive Branch shall observe the following statutory principles: the self-determination of peoples,” López Obrador interrupted—“there you have it.” Next principle: “non-intervention.” The President again interrupted: “Slow down, slow down. Repeat that.” And so the exchange continued through the reading of the principles of “the peaceful solution of disputes” and “the prohibition of the threat or use of force in international relations.”
There you have it, López Obrador repeated.
“Non-intervention and self-determination of peoples is a Constitutional principle. That is sometimes forgotten because there was a time when this policy was not complied with.”
He reminded the press that it is a principle which is not only from the Constitution, but it is a political principle expressed by the great President Benito Juárez, who declared after having restored the Republic after the French-Anglo occupation: “Peace is respect for the rights of others.”
“For me, the best foreign policy is a domestic one,” López Obrador went on. “We have a lot of work in Mexico. If we end corruption in Mexico; if there is employment, progress, well-being in Mexico, we are going to be respected throughout the world.”
We are not going to intervene in Venezuela, in the same way that we are not going to get involved in U.S. domestic disputes, the President continued.
“We cannot be sticking our nose in the domestic life of another country, because we do not want anyone, any foreign government intervening in matters which correspond only to Mexicans....”
He concluded: “I am very happy because we have gone back to the foreign policy tradition which always gave us a special place in the world.”
