Mexican Consul in Istanbul Isabel Arvide. Photo: Google

PULSE NEWS MEXICO

In yet another stellar example of finesse-less, faux-pas diplomacy and astute-free thinking, Mexico’s consul in Istanbul, Isabel Arvide — a diehard devotee of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO and his so-called Fourth Transformation (4T) government with absolutely no formal diplomatic training or background in international relations who the president appointed to the post a year and a half ago because she had lost her job as a second-rate reporter and needed employment — demonstrated Tuesday, Feb. 7, that she was indeed a faithful follower of her idol.

When questioned about having refused to receive members of Mexico’s famed Topos earthquake rescue brigade, who were sent to Turkey to aid in the rescue efforts in the devastating 7.8-magnitude quake that has already claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people, Arvide tweeted that she had more important matters to attend to.

Later, she was harshly criticized in Turkish social media for her apparent indifference to the victims of the tragedy, having responded to members of the press who asked how people in Mexico could help out by saying that “that is not my concern.”

One Twitter user wrote that Arvide had earned the position 90 percent because of her loyalty to AMLO and 10 percent because of her professional capabilities.

To which, Arvide responded — also on Twitter — that, “in my case, that is 100 percent faithfulness to the 4T,” thus implying that the 10 percent of professionalism that the other tweeter had credited her with was, in fact, erroneous.

Not surprisingly, Mexican Foreign Relations (SRE) Secretary Marcelo Ebrard later announced that he would be in charge of supervising all Mexican humanitarian aid to Turkey and Syria.