(My new American Thinker post)
This week, Secretary Antony Blinken went before the Congress and answered a question about Mexico. It went like this:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed Wednesday that he believed parts of Mexico are controlled by the drug cartels and not by the Mexican government.
Blinken was being questioned by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who held a press conference earlier this month and said he wanted cartels to be labeled terrorist organizations and pressed Congress to authorize the use of military force to destroy Mexican drug labs.
Graham then asked Blinken if he believed 'that fentanyl coming from Mexico is killing Americans by the tens of thousands.'
'It is. And it’s also killing Mexicans,' Blinken replied.
And then you heard a nuclear bomb go off in Mexico.
By coincidence or because he had prior warning of Blinken's remarks, President Lopez-Obrador unleashed an attack on the Biden administration. As reported by Keith Dillon of Pulse News Mexico:
“If you see the report of the little department of the Department of State, it’s a ‘bodrio;’ you’ll have to check the dictionary,” said AMLO on his Wednesday morning conference. According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, “bodrio” means something of very poor quality or badly made.
“It says: According to experts, it is presumed, it is pointed out that there are serious human rights violations,” said López Obrador. “But there is no evidence; the little department of the State Department is slanderous.”
“In Mexico, there is no torture, there are no massacres,” added the federal executive, completely contradicting the fact that massacres are rising under his administration and that the AMLO presidency is well on track to become the most violent administration in Mexico’s recent history. According to data from the daily Mexican newspaper Reforma, there were 306 homicide victims from 42 massacres perpetrated in the first semester of 2022 alone, and 318 pending investigations of human rights violations purportedly committed by members of Mexico’s Armed Forces...
“The Mexican state has ceased to be the main violator of human rights. In Mexico, freedom of expression is guaranteed, no one is persecuted, no one is repressed, let them not be confused,” concluded López Obrador, ignoring the fact that his administration recently passed a law to fine journalists who criticize the president, that his “Who’s Who in Lies of the Week” segment has continually launched vitriol against members of the press who speak out against AMLO’s initiatives, and that Mexico is consistently one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to operate in.
…AMLO then went on to comment on the case of U.S. company Vulcan Materials, whose ship was supposedly forcibly entered by rival company Cemex alongside elements of the Mexican Armed Forces at the Maritime Terminal in Playa del Carmen without notifying Vulcan Materials on March 14 -- actions Blinken and Republican senators alike characterized as having the potential to “very negatively impact” investment from the United States into Mexico.
But from López Obrador’s perspective, Vulcan Materials and its subsidiaries have been committing “ecocide” through their operations, and subsequently called the U.S. outcry against the March 14 port situation as full of “double standards,” alleging U.S. lawmakers only support the environment when it is convenient for them.
Who knew that Mexico was concerned about "ecocide"? That's a new one for me.
Nevertheless, talk about Blinken hitting a nerve. AMLO did not like it one bit.
Back in the days of President Trump, we had a better relationship between the presidents. Maybe it's because # 45 got some concessions from AMLO, such as "Remain in Mexico," but kept human rights off the front pages.
We move forward remembering all that stuff from the campaign about Joe Biden's experience and how it would facilitate our relations with our neighbors.
Mean tweets vs sober experience was the word.
So far it's not working. AMLO is not working with us and doesn't look like he is in the mood to do anything.
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