Mexico's President and Trump Have This in Common: They Both Trample Human Rights
In 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador campaigned as the anti-Trump, promising to push back against the U.S. president’s anti-immigrant policies, bluster and bullying. This week, López Obrador meets with Trump in Washington, and he has long since revealed his true colors. Far from challenging the U.S. president, he has become one of Trump’s closest allies, cooperating with him on policies that trample human rights and following his neighbor’s abusive playbook on issues such as border policy, law enforcement, Covid-19, press freedom and women’s rights.
The official visit on July 8 and 9 — arranged to celebrate the kick off of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaces NAFTA — will be López Obrador’s first international trip since taking office. His critics at home worry that a trip ostensibly meant to bolster Mexico’s economy and North American free trade will be coopted by Trump for his reelection effort. As one political analyst said, López Obrador’s studiously friendly relationship with Trump “hasn’t always been the best in terms of Mexico’s national interest.” It is perhaps telling that Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not be in attendance, and that López Obrador has declined to meet with the Biden campaign or congressional Democrats while in Washington.
Far from fulfilling his vow not to "do the dirty work of the US,” López Obrador has been an enthusiastic partner in Trump’s controversial efforts to close down the U.S. asylum system and circumvent refugee law. He deployed the military to Mexico’s southern border to intercept impoverished refugee families fleeing from violence and abuse in Central America. He signed on to the so-called Remain in Mexico program, which forces asylum seekers to wait for their hearings in dangerous, unsanitary, makeshift camps on the Mexico side of the border, where they face kidnapping, extortion and violence at the hands of cartels and Mexican officials.
The Mexican president also shares Trump’s affinity for the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. In 2019, López Obrador changed the Mexican Constitution to allow the military to patrol the streets and detain civilians, formalizing a policy initiated by his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, in 2006, with the full support of the U.S. government. In Mexico, 14 years of military policing have led to countless incidents of torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/07/mexicos-president-and-trump-have-common-they-both-trample-human-rights
= new reply since forum marked as read
