Thursday, May 14, 2020

Lopez-Obrador just gave Trump a big issue to run on

Political Cartoons - Eric Holder and the ATF Fast and Furious ...
On Tuesday night, I spoke with Allan Wall, who writes often about U.S.-Mexico issues.  Like me, Allan was a bit surprised that President Lopez-Obrador opened this case so many years later.  
In fact, the Mexican president sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.  
This is from Mexico News Daily:   
Referring to the details of the diplomatic note in a video message, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that if the United States government executed the gun-running scheme without the knowledge of Mexican officials, it violated Mexico’s sovereignty.
On the other hand, if the government led by Calderón did know about the “fast and furious” scheme, that administration committed “serious violations” against the constitution, Ebrard said, because former Mexican officials denied knowledge of it in statements made to Congress and society.
Let’s remember that the “scheme” happened in 2010-11 or during President Felipe Calderon’s (2006-12) term.  
Let’s add that Mr. Calderon defeated Mr. Lopez-Obrador in a controversial election decided by 244,000 out of 39 million votes.
As many in Mexico say, the feud between Lopez-Obrador and Calderon is personal.  In other words, he believes that the 2006 election was stolen.  
It appears that President Lopez-Obrador wants to go after President Calderon and blame him for the weapons that ended up in Mexico.
Up here, President Trump has a great opportunity to cooperate with Mexico and call on former VP Biden to explain what “Fast and Furious” was all about.
My guess is that Biden was not involved.  I think that this was Attorney General Eric Holder’s fumble but it won’t hurt to ask Biden about it.
Politics aside, I would like to know what happened.  How did 2,000 lethal weapons end up in the hands of cartels?  How did this happen?
President Trump should put his administration on record that the U.S. will cooperate and express his regrets to the victims in Mexico.
P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.