AMLO Refuses to Impose Sanctions on Russia
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Photo: Google
By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF
Although Mexico “is opposed the invasion of any country’s sovereign territory by another,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said Tuesday. March 1, that his government will not impose any economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“Mexico is not going to impose any type of economic reprisal (against Russia) because we want to have good relations with all the governments in the world,” López Obrador said during his daily press conference at the National Palace.
On Monday, Feb. 28, AMLO acknowledged that while Europe, Canada and the United States have closed their airspace to Russia’s state-owned Aeroflot, his administration on Thursday, Feb. 24, extended an invitation to that airlines to establish direct flights to Mexico.
Moreover, AMLO said that the Western global social media network, which has imposed restrictions on numerous Russia-sponsored news sources, including digitally created “reporters” who have presented a laundry list of misinformation on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit and other networks, are “wrong to impose censorship” on Russian state-sponsored agencies.
In direct response from a reporter from the Russian Sputnik News Agency, AMLO said that his government “has no intentions” of censuring any media nor imposing economic boycotts against Russia.
Since AMLO took office in December 2018, Russia’s commercial and investment presence in Mexico has increased dramatically, with Russia selling more than $870 billion in goods and services to Mexico in 2021, up from just over $1.5 billion in 2018.
And on Friday, Feb. 25, just as Vladimir Putin’s troops were ruthlessly bombing Kiev, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, signed the final acquisition papers on a 50-percent operator interest in a $435 million offshore Mexican oil project in the Gulf of Mexico.