In an interview with news outlet The Hill, Mexican presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez declared that “US officials shouldn’t ignore the current situation with Mexican democracy”
Mexico’s opposition presidential candidate says U.S. officials are missing the mark on bilateral relations, too focused on migration and fentanyl ahead of the November elections and ignoring the consequences of democratic decline south of the border.
Xóchitl Gálvez, who leads a motley opposition coalition ahead of Mexico’s June vote, warned that the Biden administration is essentially looking the other way as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is barred from running for reelection, dismantles the country’s democratic institutions.
“They don’t care about anything other than migration and fentanyl. That’s why I came to say, ‘Realize that in Mexico there is a problem with democracy,’” Gálvez told The Hill in a wide-ranging interview this week.
Her visit to Washington and New York came in the wake of three media reports that allege drug money fueled López Obrador’s 2006 campaign. He lost in 2006 and 2012 before handily winning the 2018 election.
The reports detailed how U.S. officials deemed the investigations too risky and pulled the plug months before the 2012 vote.
López Obrador repudiated the reports as baseless political attacks and an attempt at foreign intervention.
A day later, President Biden held a call with López Obrador thanking him for “Mexico’s operational support and for taking concrete steps to deter irregular migration while expanding lawful pathways,” according to a White House readout of the call.
The tensions followed by appeasement are developing into a pattern in Biden’s dealings with López Obrador, who has positioned himself as a key player in limiting migration flows to the United States.
According to Gálvez, the focus on keeping López Obrador cooperative on migration is already costing the United States in other areas.
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