OPINION

A mass grave of Ukrainian civilians. Photo: Google

By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

While most of the civilized world was busy condemning Vladimir Putin for his alleged war crimes and attempted genocide of the Ukrainian people on Wednesday, April 6, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) preferred to use the bully pulpit of his daily press conference to instead condemn members of the U.S. Congress for “daring” to suggest the revocation of the visas of Mexican politicians who took part in the Mexico-Russia Friendship group following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Calling the proposed revocation of the visas — which was presented to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken by Congressman Vicente González of Texas on Tuesday, April 5 — an “affront to freedom,” López Obrador even went so far as say that he would send a formal letter of protest to Washington if the United States were to cancel the visas of the Mexican deputies, almost all of whom are members of the pro-communist Labor Party (PT).

AMLO also said that if the Mexican parliamentarians’ visas were revoked, it would constitute an act of a “return to the Cold War” (apparently, the president does not understand that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constitutes an act of outright war, not just Cold War), and would turn the Statue of Liberty in New York “green with shame” over the deprivation of the deputies’ freedom (the statue is already green, but NOT from shame).

What López Obrador did not mention was the fact that Russia is, in fact, the one depriving people of their freedom, in a much more blatant and heinous manner than the U.S. Congress could ever do: It is depriving thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians of their right to live!

How is it possible for a man who claims to support the rights of humanity and the underdogs of the world to not condemn Putin for his inhumane acts of carnage against the Ukrainian people, acts that have been duly documented by both the international media and human rights organizations?

If López Obrador is so set on writing a letter to defend freedoms, why is he not writing to Putin to demand an end of the brutal violence against Ukraine?

The answer, sadly, is that AMLO is not, as he claims, “a sovereign leader,” but a puppet prince who each day become more subjugated by his socialist lords.

And while if AMLO wants to be cowed to the orders of Moscow, he is welcome to do so, the unfortunate reality is that, in so doing, he is also submitting the entire nation of Mexico to the thrall of Putin.

It is AMLO, not the Statue of Liberty, who should be green with shame.