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Mexico-Europe relations at risk if AMLO ignores human rights concerns, politician warns from Mexico News Daily

In this article from Mexico News Daily, a representative of the European People’s Party (EPP) made it clear that Mexico’s relationship with Europe would experience some tension if Mexico did not do more to fight against human rights abuses at home. According to this representative, Leopoldo López Gil, “at least 47 journalists have been murdered since president López Obrador (AMLO) took office in December 2018” (“Mexico-Europe”, 2022). In the wake of all of this violence, president AMLO has been known to present attacks on the media that further validate this anti-journalist rhetoric. The European Parliament, in preparing to vote on a new Mexico-EU trade resolution, has claimed that its members will likely take AMLO’s behavior and attitude towards human rights into account when voting on any agreements. Despite AMLO’s insults against the European Parliament and the clear instances of “human rights violations since he took office, including unlawful killings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and violence against women and girls,” the president still claims to be intolerant of such behaviors (“Mexico-Europe”, 2022).

López Gil, the Venezuelan contact in the EPP, has stated that the objective of the EPP and the European Parliament is not to meddle in the AMLO administration, but rather to “remind the Mexican government that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” “ask López Obrador to take the decision to defend and protect journalists and [human rights] defenders,” and allow for “peace to prevail in the “great country” of Mexico.” (“Mexico-Europe”, 2022). AMLO provided, unsurprisingly, an incendiary response to these recent claims, and made statements about having adversaries even in the European Parliament, as well as publicly wondering who gave them the right to interfere in Mexico’s affairs.

While there has been a long history of AMLO being painted as a stubborn and narrow-minded leader, this article sounds particularly one-sided, allowing López Gil to give calm and collected responses to the situation but pulling comments from AMLO that were likely made in times of tension or stress. There is no denying he said those things, of course, but I do think the article could have done a better job of giving both sides an objective spotlight. This article linked to four other Mexico News Daily articles to give more context on the current state of Mexico and its stance on human rights violations, as well as using some content and quotations from a similar article published in Spanish by El Universal. While this does provide a better scope of information on the article and the claims it presents, all the information is from the same source, and I can imagine that some bias would exist in each one as well.

Source:

Mexico-Europe relations at risk if AMLO ignores human rights concerns, politician warns. (2022, March 18). Mexico News Daily. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mexico-europe-relations-amlo/