By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said Thursday, Feb. 17, that the United States is “financing” a media smear campaign against him and his government, and that he intends to confront President Joe Biden about the matter.

Calling the alleged campaign “an act of political interference” by a foreign government into Mexican internal affairs (and apparently unaware of the concept of how a free media operates in the United States), López Obrador said that he would talk to Biden about “respecting Mexico’s sovereignty.”

Speaking during his daily morning press conference at Mexico’s Number 2 Military Zone, AMLO said that “Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country, and not a colony or a protectorate,” echoing his consistent claims that Spain has exploited Mexico as a land of conquest, but now leveraging his attacks on Washington.

“This is a matter that we must raise, and we are going to present it to President Biden. The entire campaign against our government is being financed by the United States government,” he claimed.

“That is an interventionist attitude. No foreign government should intervene in the affairs of our country. Our sovereignty must be respected.”

Over the course of the last few weeks, numerous international media houses — including the New York Times, the Washington Post, El País and the Economist — have condemned the Mexican president for his continued verbal (and, now, potentially legal) assaults on journalists in the face of growing media assassinations.

“All this is what we are going to continue dealing with, because these are very important issues,” AMLO said.

“In the world, these media power blocs are used to impose corruption, so that companies can steal with impunity. These companies not only dominate the most influential media, but also put in place rulers. It is not the people, but the large corporations, through the media, that elevate leaders or parties in the world.”

AMLO went on to say that thanks to media intervention, “incompetent persons, with no moral authority or love for the people (they govern), come to occupy high-level positions because they are endorsed by the media, much the way that junk food  products are promoted.”

López Obrador then said that his accusations against the media “have nothing to do with the exercise of freedom of expression,” which he claimed is guaranteed under Mexican law.

“The issue here is what’s behind that expression, how the media is financed,” he said.

There was no immediate response to AMLO’s comments from Washington.