U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo; Google

By KELIN DILLON

Just days after the U.S. Department of State released its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices to the public, which details purported human rights violations experienced in Mexico and throughout countries around the world, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took to his daily morning press conference on the morning of Tuesday, March 21, to respond to the State Department report, calling the United States “liars” surrounding its human rights abuse allegations against Mexico.

“It is not true, they are lying. It is pure politicking. With all due respect, it is that it is their nature. They do not want to abandon the Monroe Doctrine and before the so-called manifest destiny; the United States does not want change,” said AMLO from Tuesday’s Oaxaca-based conference. 

“The United States believe they are the government of the world. They assume themselves as the government of the world, and nothing else sees the speck in the other’s eye and not the beam in their own,” continued the Mexican federal executive.

The report levied allegations against Mexico of widespread torture, extrajudicial killings, human trafficking, gender violence femicide, forced disappearances and limits on freedom of expression across the country, trends that the U.S. Department of State claim are only exacerbated by the Mexican government’s impunity toward criminals and failure to properly investigate crimes.

However, according to López Obrador, the United States must look at its own handling of affairs – such as in the case of Australian publisher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – before passing blame on others.

“Let’s see, human rights, hey, why don’t you release Assange, if you’re talking about journalism and freedom? Why are you holding Assange in jail?” questioned AMLO at the time. “If you are talking about acts of violence, how come an award-winning journalist in the United States claims that the United States government sabotaged the gas pipeline from Russia to Europe?” 

López Obrador went on to say that he doesn’t believe the commitment to the status quo is something brought on by the administration of current U.S. President Joe Biden, but by an enduring attitude from longtime members of the State Department.

“They do not want to change. They are the ones who want to subdue others; they do not respect, they do not know that the people are free. We are independent, we are sovereign and they are very meddling, that is why they should not be taken seriously,” concluded AMLO.

Meanwhile, as López Obrador launched his tirade against the State Department from Oaxaca, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar invited Manuel Bartlett, the director of Mexico’s state-owned electricity company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), to visit Washington in an effort to accelerate the neighboring countries’ clean-energy collaborations.

While Bartlett claimed he would venture to the United States for the visit in two or three months, Salazar urged the CFE director to prioritize the visit to the United States.

“With all due respect, Manuel, we should do it sooner than in two or three months,” said Salazar. “The message is that we have to do a lot more; otherwise, we are going to be heating up the planet in a way that is going to harm the whole world and our sons and daughters.”