López Obrador Insists United States Stop Funding Bankers’ Election Coalition, Now!

May 23, 2021 (EIRNS)—Five days ago, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded the U.S. government respond to the May 7 diplomatic protest sent by the Mexican government over the State Department’s Agency for International Development (USAID) funding of “Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity” (MCCI). That “NGO” (its funding notwithstanding) is running the opposition to López Obrador’s government in the June 6, midterm Congressional elections, on behalf of the international financiers. President López Obrador referenced the promise from an official with the USAID program at the U.S. Embassy that it would “review” the charge, but reported that “they are taking a long time.... Let’s hope that by this week they stop these payments.”

Associated Press reported that afternoon that the State Department responded to the news agency that it does not comment on diplomatic correspondence.

López Obrador increased the pressure in his May 20 morning press conference:

“We are not going to allow any interventionist attitude. Mexico is not a colony. It is not a protectorate. Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country.... We will continue denouncing [foreign intervention into our elections] until the United States government gives us a clear answer for why they are giving money to this opposition group.... That violates our Constitution. No foreign government can go around giving money to opposition groups, or to political groups in our country. I am awaiting an answer from the United States government.... We are in the midst of elections, and those who are carrying out election-related activities continue to receive money.”

López Obrador described how MCCI founder Claudio X. González, Jr. had pulled together the leaders of all conservative parties, businessmen, and mainstream media editors, all of whom consistently attack his government. He described these leaders as the “advocates of the free market,” who argue that

“the government serves to guarantee order and make it easy for investors, national or foreign. That’s why, whenever there is a crisis and the banks or financial institutions go into bankruptcy, they bail them out with the public budget.... For that, they do use the state. When it comes to funding programs for the poor, for the needy, for the people, this they call populism or paternalism.”

A journalist from El Centinela Informa media website asked the President for permission to play an audio feed from González, in which the Mexicans against Corruption founder was explaining to a group of youths just two weeks ago that MCCI’s goal in the midterm elections is to end López Obrador’s ability to govern. That is what USAID is funding: González further said that the government coalition must not win even a simple majority in the Chamber of Deputies on June 6. That way, the government “will not be able to make any legal change in any law, never mind a change in the Constitution. Furthermore, the budget, which is the prerogative of the Chamber of Deputies, would be in the hands of the opposition.”