AMLO upset over U.S. funding to stop corruption in Mexico

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The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, pressured the United States to stop sending funds to a non-governmental organization that apparently fights corruption, but that is linked to political parties and right-wing business groups that attack the government.

López Obrador assures that the delivery of those resources amounts to meddling in the internal affairs of Mexico and financing the opposition.

“It is as if the Mexican embassy in the United States gives money to opponents,” declared the president. “They should no longer be handing out money.”

In early May, before a virtual meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris, López Obrador said that Mexico had submitted a diplomatic note on the matter to the US embassy.

The president affirmed that “there is a commitment from the United States government to carry out a review.” But “they are already taking time; I mean it in a respectful way, ”he added.

“Hopefully, starting this week they cancel this support,” said the president. “This money is being used in a campaign against us.”

He stated that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “should urgently cancel” such payments this week, before the June 6 elections.

The US State Department said it does not comment on diplomatic correspondence.

López Obrador has long attacked non-governmental organizations such as Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad, which, according to him, has received the equivalent of some 2.5 million dollars from the United States.

The president assures that the group is aligned with the opposition, although the organization affirms that it only watches that the government does not abuse the spending or the programs. The group, created three years before López Obrador assumed the presidency, has criticized previous governments and other parties, although they are called opportunists since they did not point to acts of corruption or political fraud in the past.

The group said in a statement that “we reiterate that MCCI is not linked to any political party, nor will it be.”

He assured that the president’s accusations represent a “political persecution”, although they are carried out without any problem, and that the president had revealed the tax information of the group, which violates the relevant confidentiality laws, but does not say anything about his financing of foreign governments.

The organization has issued reports against some measures taken by López Obrador, including the cancellation of an airport in Mexico City, -despite the proven corruption found and documented by the government-, and the construction of a tourist train that would detonate the economic potential in the Yucatan peninsula, with flimsy arguments.

The group’s founder, Claudio X. González, has openly supported opposition candidates for the June 6 elections, in which federal legislators and governors in some states will be elected, and is an orchestrator of campaigns against the government. Several of his companies have been exposed for having millionaire tax debt.

USAID often supports civil society organizations, usually related to the promotion of human rights and democracy in many countries. In some nations, these groups often conflict with local governments.

López Obrador, who enjoys at least 65 percent approval in his country and the world’s highest-rated ‘Global Leader Approval Tracker’ agreement, has lashed out at foreign funding from non-governmental organizations.

AMLO lashes out at “Mexicans Against Corruption”

Source: latimes.com/espanol

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