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    Ben Norton: AMLO says Mexico more democratic than oligarch-run USA, condemns State Dept "meddling" Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on March 10, 2023, 9:06 am

    - against electoral reform

    9 March 2023

    Lede: Responding to State Department criticism of Mexico's popular electoral
    reform, President AMLO denounced US "meddling", support for coups, and the
    Monroe Doctrine. He said, "There is more democracy today in Mexico than in the
    United States... because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy
    govern".

    (quote)
    Mexico's leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) gave a fiery
    speech condemning the US State Department's "bad habit" of "meddling" in other
    country's "internal affairs".

    "There is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States", López
    Obrador said, "because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern".

    AMLO lamented that politicians in Washington "still will not abandon the
    two-century-old policy, the Monroe Doctrine, of thinking of themselves as the
    world's government", calling it a "centuries-old habit of the US government and
    US elites".

    As an example, López Obrador pointed to Peru, where he said "the US ambassador
    is the advisor of the coup-mongers, who trampled on the liberties and democracy
    in that country, unjustly overthrowing the President [Pedro Castillo] and
    imprisoning him".

    AMLO also denounced US corporate media outlets for spreading propaganda against
    his government, supporting Mexico's right-wing opposition, and "protecting the
    mafias of economic power in the world".

    US State Department and media back opposition protests against Mexico's very
    popular electoral reforms
    López Obrador is Mexico's first left-wing president in decades. When he came to
    power in 2018, he broke a decades-long cycle of bipartisan rule, which he
    blasted as the "neoliberal period" in which the "oligarchy" ruled the country.

    In addition to expanding social programs, a key part of AMLO's political agenda
    has been electoral reform.

    For decades, Mexico has faced rampant corruption and very reputable accusations
    of electoral fraud. López Obrador has vowed to change that.

    His government proposed legislation to reform Mexico's National Electoral
    Institute (INE). The plan is to simplify the country's voting system, cutting
    funding to highly overpaid executives, while making it easier to vote for people
    living in rural areas, those with disabilities, and Mexicans abroad.

    Numerous INE executives already get paid more than the president himself, and
    the huge sums of money in and around the institution has made corruption a
    systemic problem.

    A survey from late 2022, which was conducted by the INE itself, found that the
    vast majority of Mexicans support electoral reforms, with 74% to 93% of people
    agreeing with proposed reforms, such as cutting funding and creating elections
    for electoral magistrates.

    In fact, the poll found that 52% of Mexicans support replacing the INE with an
    entirely new institution called the National Institute of Elections and
    Consultations (INEC), while just 40% of people oppose this.

    Although electoral reform is widely popular among the Mexican people, it has
    angered the country's political and economic elites, as well as their backers in
    Washington.

    On February 26, Mexico's right-wing opposition parties - many of which are
    closely linked to drug cartels and have benefited from decades of systemic
    corruption - held a march against the Mexican government's proposed electoral
    reforms, calling for the INE to be left alone.

    Major US media outlets showered the protests with support. The US State
    Department expressed its approval as well, criticizing the electoral reforms.
    (/quote)
    -- Cont'd (incl. video of AMLO's speech) at https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/03/08/amlo-mexico-democratic-oligarch-us-meddling/

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