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Mexico’s president suggested Thursday that talks with the U.S. government on migration and drug trafficking could suffer after media reports of a U.S. investigation into alleged drug money donations for his 2006 campaign. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested U.S. officials should apologize for what he called baseless allegations, and said it would be hard to sit down and talk about some of the most pressing issues in bilateral relations until that happens. “I don't accept this, what I want is for the U.S. government to take a stand,” López Obrador said at his daily morning press briefing. “If they...

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tried to slam conservative media, claiming they will not report on the corruption investigation of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. The Mexican president mistakenly claimed that conservative news outlets would provide cover for Menendez because he was a “Republican… from Texas.” The statements came during his Monday news conference where the Mexican politician briefly discussed the case. “These news outlets from the right, conservatives, are not going to say that they found gold bars,” Lopez Obrador said. “The Republican Senator, Bob Menendez from Texas, he has always been against us. They are not going to...

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took the occasion of America’s Independence Day to declare that the Statue of Liberty should be torn down if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is extradited to the United States and convicted of espionage. Assange is currently facing extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he has been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for having published classified material revealing, among other things, potential war crimes committed by the U.S. military. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. The Australian journalist appealed his extradition to...

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed Monday that he won't attend the Summit of the Americas hosted by President Biden in Los Angeles this week because not all countries in the Americas are invited. López Obrador had previously threatened to skip the summit if the Biden administration didn't invite countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Those countries did not receive invitations over human rights concerns and their "lack of democratic space," a senior U.S. official said Monday. The official said the U.S., as the host of this year's summit, has "wide discretion on invitations, but deeply values and respects...

Mexico’s President issued a veiled threat to Republican congressmen who oppose an immigration deal to grant amnesty to 11 million migrants who illegally entered the U.S. Politicians who oppose the forthcoming plan will be singled out and denounced during daily press briefings, he said. During a morning press briefing this week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador praised President Joe Biden, claiming no other U.S. counterpart had made a commitment to address 11 million illegal immigrants.

Just before an online meeting with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris Friday, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador very publicly accused the U.S. government of violating Mexico’s sovereignty. The issue apparently didn’t arise in the meeting with Harris: “It’s not on the agenda and it’s not our intention to create a bad atmosphere,” López Obrador said ahead of the talks. The meeting itself — the portion made public — focused on immigration, a key issue in U.S.-Mexico relationship along with trade, border security and the pandemic. “We are going to help” on immigration, López Obrador told Harris. “You can count...

Dutch police on the attack with water cannon to shut down coronavirus lockdown protesters in Amsterdam and Eindhoven today. Tear gas also used used against the E Eindhoven protesters. Demonstrations banned under the coronavirus lockdown in the Netherlands... The police attack on protesters in Amsterdam included dogs and mounted police. 100 detained there... A coronavirus testing center in one Dutch town torched Saturday night... Clashes in Israel today as police cracked down on Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods to enforce the coronavirus lockdown. Injuries and arrests as residents fought police with stones... In Denmark the Prime Minister burned in effigy as protesters...

A major effort underway in Russia where its now Saturday to launch street protests across the country in the coming hours... Comment Well here we go the street protest route to disrupt governments considered enemies and the US is clearly involved... There are lower numbers in the US and around the world for COVID-19 this Friday compared to last Friday... The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spreading a fearful message regarding the new COVID-19 variation... "This was a violent act of revenge by police" That's the way a massive Israeli police operation Thursday night in the Orthodox Jewish city of...

Mexico’s president published an open letter to Pope Francis Saturday calling on the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for abuses of indigenous peoples during the conquest of Mexico in the 1500s. In the letter, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also asks the pope to lend Mexico ancient pre-Hispanic Mexican or colonial-era documents. “The Catholic Church, the Spanish monarchy and the Mexican government should make a public apology for the offensive atrocities that Indigenous people suffered,” the letter states. López Obrador asked the pope to make a statement in favor of Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico’s 19th-century independence leader who was once believed...

Masked gunmen barged onto a bus in northern Mexico, carrying a list of names. They left without firing a single shot, taking at least 19 passengers with them as they sped away from the scene. And so far, they seem to have vanished without a trace. Gunmen intercepted the bus March 7 along the highway that connects San Fernando, a town in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, with the city of Reynosa, which sits across the US border from McAllen, Texas. Officials at first tried to downplay the possibility the migrants were kidnapped... Rafael Alonso Hernandez Lopez, who directs...

Veteran leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office as Mexican president on Saturday, vowing to see off a “rapacious” elite in a country struggling with corruption, chronic poverty and gang violence on the doorstep of the United States. Backed by a gigantic Mexican flag, the 65-year-old took the oath of office in the lower house of Congress, pledging to bring about a “radical” rebirth of Mexico to overturn what he called a disastrous legacy of decades of “neo-liberal” governments. “The government will no longer be a committee at the service of a rapacious minority,” said the new president, who is...

MEXICO CITY — The honeymoon for incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who will be sworn in Saturday, will be sweet and short, if it happens at all. Awaiting him are a host of urgent issues, from a growing number of Central American migrants encamped at the U.S. border and the threat of a border shutdown to skyrocketing violence around the country, jittery foreign investors and energy policy issues. He'll also need to address his people's seemingly impossible expectations, such as eradicating centuries of corruption and poverty during his single six-year presidential term. But among his greatest challenges will be...

According to news reports, President elect Andrés Lopez-Obrador of Mexico has invited Venezuela's dictator Nicolas Maduro to his inauguration.   By the way, he also invited Evo Morales of Bolivia.  I'm assuming that Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel will also attend. What does it mean?   Not much.  Mexicans always invite fellow Latin American leaders to their inaugurations.  In other words, Lopez-Obrador is not breaking new ground here. I do wonder about a couple of things: First, will President Trump or VP Pence attend?  I can't see that, specially after the tough language coming out of this administration about Venezuela.  Also, I recall that in 1981...

Full title: Narco-Terrorism to Worsen under Mexico’s New Leftist President, State Dept. Warns; Amnesty for Drug Traffickers The overwhelming majority of illegal drugs in the United States already come from Mexico and Mexican traffickers are the greatest criminal threat to the nation, but things are about to get worse when Mexico’s new leftwing president takes over. His name is Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known popularly as AMLO), he opposes hardline anti-drug policies and believes in amnesty for drug war criminals. A State Department document obtained by Judicial Watch warns that Obrador, who takes over on December 1, will seek to...

President Donald Trump says the United States is close to a “big Trade Agreement” with Mexico and he’s citing improving ties between the two countries. […] He’s spoken of better relations with America’s neighbor following the rise of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The U.S. and Mexico have been discussing a trade deal as part of negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Trump administration is seeking a revised version of that trade deal with Mexico and Canada. …

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent U.S. President Donald Trump a letter calling for a swift conclusion to NAFTA negotiations and pledging his wish to reset relations between the two countries, Mexican officials said on Sunday. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent U.S. President Donald Trump a letter urging a swift end to NAFTA negotiations and suggesting the leaders could work well together due to their shared anti-establishment style, Mexican officials said on Sunday. The letter was delivered during a recent meeting in Mexico with senior U.S. officials, and details were disclosed once Trump had received it, said...

President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday released a seven-page letter he sent to U.S. President Donald Trump detailing how he plans to improve Mexico's economy and security when he takes office in December so that Mexicans do not feel the need to migrate. "There will be many changes," he promised in the letter. "And in this new atmosphere of progress with well-being, I'm sure we can reach agreements to confront together the migration phenomenon as well as the problem of border insecurity." Lopez Obrador also suggested the two countries draft a development plan backed by public funds and invite...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would cancel the planned purchase of eight military helicopters from the United States as part of cost-cutting measures.Lopez Obrador, who handily won this month’s presidential election on pledges to fight corruption and cut government waste, said there had been plans to pay 26 billion pesos ($1.36 billion) for the helicopters to be used by Mexico’s navy. “This purchase is going to be canceled because we can not make this expenditure,” Lopez Obrador told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with incoming legislators from his MORENA party. Lopez Obrador is...

There will be no more internal spying on opposition politicians, incoming president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Saturday, recalling that he was tailed for years by federally-employed spies. There will be no more Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen) either, following its dissolution as part of the new government’s austerity measures. The newly-appointed public security secretary, Alfonso Durazo Montaño, announced the move on Saturday. “Cisen disappears because it has been discredited due to the political use that was made of it,” Durazo said. The incoming secretary said a new organization, the National Intelligence Agency, will replace it. López...

Just a quick observation regarding the Mexican election: I can only assume Mexico likes America as they encourage so many of their citizens and foreign visitors passing through to move here. Why then did they elect a Socialist sworn to make Mexico more like Venezuela than America? Mexico’s AMLO (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) Sweeps to Power in Historic Left-Wing Landslide. Not necessarily a winning strategy in the long runI think it must be the same game plan that Democrats have to Re-Make America. Socialism first, details to follow.At the Ann Arbor “Families Belong Together” march: Open those Borders! Make the...