Photo: Organization of American States

By KELIN DILLON

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) candidate for the governorship of Nuevo León, Adrián de la Garza Santos, denounced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to the Organization of American States (OAS) based off of López Obrador’s “interference in the elections in Nuevo León, violating the Inter-American Democratic Charter, signed by the countries of the continent in 2001.”

“Today I am not just coming before you about the issue of the election in Nuevo León. I think our interest is greater, which is the democracy of Mexico. What is happening in Mexico is serious for all of us. It threatens our freedoms, against many struggles that we had to go through to have clean elections, accurate elections that give democracy to our country,” said De la Garza during his in-person meeting in Washington D.C. with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro.

“What has been happening recently (in Mexico) violates fundamental letters of inter-American democracy that are already in documents and that respect has always been given to make all our countries viable.”

De la Garza had been accused of and is currently being investigated for allegedly buying votes in June’s elections by offering female voters in Nuevo León a cash card worth 1,500 pesos every two months, conditional on his win.

The announcement of the investigation prompted a public response from López Obrador during his daily morning press conference, where he is banned from speaking on electoral matters until the end of the elections, expressing his happiness at the inquiry.

Following De la Garza’s meeting with the organization, Almagro said “the OAS will send an international mission to monitor the elections in Mexico and specifically in Nuevo León.”

“They have already accused me with the OAS, imagine,” responded AMLO on the morning of May 13. “Any organization can come, the doors are open.”