President Andres Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday, warning that the U.S. government is targeting the Mexican Community Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), a civil society organization it considers an opponent of the administration. said he would file a complaint about the funding.
He also said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send a diplomatic note to the US government on the same issue.
This is the second time AMLO has raised the issue of U.S. funding for MCCI, calling it “outrageous” for the U.S. to fund an organization that “opposes a lawful and legitimate government.” (Moises Pablo/Quartoscuro)
López Obrador told a morning press conference that the reason for this was that “we believe that the U.S. government is openly interfering in matters that concern exclusively the sovereignty of our country.”
The Mexican government previously sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government regarding MCCI funding for 2021.
López Obrador said at the time that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico had been funding anti-corruption organizations since 2018 with funds provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling it “an act of interference that violates the sovereignty of our country.” .
Subsequently, the U.S. government issued a memorandum of understanding to combat corruption, including “strengthen support to build the capacity of civil society, the media, state and local organizations, international partners, and other oversight and accountability actors.” He emphasized efforts to combat this.
López Obrador announced Wednesday that he would write a letter to Biden regarding U.S. funding for MCCI, an organization founded by businessman Claudio X. González, which has exposed corruption allegations in the current administration. This was the day after he made the accusation again.
“It is outrageous that our government, our friend and neighbor, is funding an organization that opposes our lawful and legitimate government. What is that called? Interventionism is what it is,” the president said. said.
“… How can they unilaterally maintain good relations and at the same time give money to our opponents (of the Mexican government) to slander us? Why throw stones and hide their hands? “Why this double talk, this double standard? Why this hypocrisy?” López Obrador said.
He argued that the United States also funds groups opposed to other countries’ governments, calling the practice a “bad practice.”
“…The U.S. government should stop this. This makes them look very bad. And they complain that why there is antipathy[against the U.S. government]… ” he said.
“…And the other thing is, we should stop blaming Mexico and other countries for problems like drug use. Are you aware of the U.S. government’s plan to combat rising drug use among young people? ?Do you know anything? Nothing,” López Obrador said.
UIF: MCCI received P96.7 million from the US Embassy since 2018
The head of the federal government’s Financial Intelligence Agency (UIF) said at Prime Minister López Obrador’s press conference on Wednesday that the MCCI received 96.74 million pesos (510 million pesos) from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico from late August 2018 to late January 2024. He said he received US$ 1,000,000.
Pablo Gomez also presented information about the large donations MCCI has received from private organizations in the United States, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Pablo Gomez revealed on Wednesday that MCCI received US$5.1 million through the US Embassy from late August 2018 to late January 2024. (Rogelio Morales/Quartoscuro)
Additionally, it said that since 2016, Mexican companies and individuals have donated more than 299 million pesos (US$15.8 million) to MCCI.
Gomez said MCCI has received a total of 502.58 million pesos (US$26.6 million) in donations since 2016.
The organization has been led by Maria Amparo Casar since 2020 and was founded in 2015.
AMLO announces possible changes to laws regulating donations to NGOs
President López Obrador said on Wednesday that he would ask the government’s National Tax Prosecutor’s Office and the federal tax agency SAT to conduct an investigation and prepare a report on donations to organizations such as MCCI.
“We still have time to introduce amendments to the bill to ensure that campaigns against the interests of the majority of Mexicans are not funded with their own funds. “Even if we do, that money does not reach the people,” he said. “It is the property of the national treasury and cannot be used for the development of the country for the benefit of all Mexicans.”
López Obrador said funds that should have been paid to the government in taxes were being used for “sectarian purposes.”
Why would AMLO take revenge against MCCI?
While López Obrador has described himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, the MCCI also says it will work to reduce corruption in Mexico. However, they could not see eye to eye because of their common cause.
The MCCI has angered the president as it has released various reports alleging that the current government is plagued by corruption.
MCCI Founder Claudio X. González and Director Maria Amparo Casar, 2019. (Victoria Valtierra/Quartoscuro)
One concerns the government’s youth employment programme, the other concerns higher education programmes. Amparo Casar is also a member of the executive committee of Sinhos Vitales, another NGO that gave a scathing assessment of the president and the government in a report released in 2021.
MCCI has also filed more than 100 injunctions against the previous López Obrador administration’s cancellation of the Mexico City airport project and the current administration’s construction of Felipe Angeles International Airport, which opened north of the capital in early 2022. He was also a member of the group.
At the beginning of his six-year term, the president claimed that the MCCI was engaged in “sabotage” against his administration and claimed it was receiving funds from foreign foundations to oppose the government’s Maya Train rail project.
He said Tuesday that the organization is “participating in a social war against our movement and the Mexican president.”
“We claim that they are financing the entire cost of an Internet campaign with the slogan ‘AMLO Narco,’ or ‘Presidential Narco,’ or something like that, ‘Narco Presidente,'” López-Off said. Radoll said.
This derogatory nickname comes after ProPublica, Deutsche Welle, and Insight Crime reported that people who worked for López Obrador’s 2006 presidential campaign were involved in narcotics linked to the Beltrán Leyva organization and the Sinaloa organization. It went viral earlier this year after the company released reports that it had received between $2 million and $4 million from traffickers. cartel.
The New York Times then reported on allegations that people close to López Obrador, including his sons, received drug funds after he became president in late 2018.
With reports from Reforma, Radio Fórmula, El Universal, El Financiero
