Menendez: Mexico’s president tried to ‘blackmail’ Biden to invite ‘dictators’ to Americas summit

06/10/2022

Source: USA Today

Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of siding with “dictators and despots” after he decided to skip the summit because Biden refused to invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“I think that President López Obrador basically tried to blackmail President Biden into insisting that countries that are not democratic – countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Daniel Ortegas’ Nicaragua, that are dictators and despots – should have been invited to the summit,” Menendez, D-N.J., said during an interview on MSNBC Thursday.

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US files 4th labor complaint on Mexican workers’ rights

06/08/2022

Source: ABC News

The United States on Monday filed its fourth labor complaint about purported violations of union organizing rights in Mexico.

The complaint was filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact, which requires that Mexico enforce a law that says employees are allowed to freely choose the union that represents them. For decades, undemocratic, pro-company unions kept wages in Mexico low by reaching behind-the-scenes deals with employers.

The complaint says the United States found “credible evidence” that workers at the Teksid Hierro automotive parts plant were being denied the right to freely choose which union will represent them.

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EXCLUSIVE U.S. anti-drugs agency pulls plane from Mexico in fresh cooperation blow

MEXICO CITY, May 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has stopped stationing a plane in Mexico for anti-narcotics operations for the first time in decades after Mexican officials rescinded its parking spot, three sources said.

Date: May 11th, 2022

Source: Reuters

The withdrawal of the aircraft is a new hit to joint cooperation against drug crime which has frayed in recent years under Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The DEA has had its own aircraft based at Toluca near Mexico City since at least the early 1990s to conduct missions against cartels, ferrying U.S. agents and elite Mexican units to supervise time-sensitive raids across the Latin American nation.

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Canada and Mexico prepare to accept Americans seeking abortions

If the US supreme court does vote to overthrow Roe v Wade, many Americans in need of surgical abortions could be forced to travel to Canada or Mexico

Date: May 9th, 2022

Source: The Guardian

Carolyn Egan has seen people cross the Canada-US border for abortions – going north to south.

In the years before Canada’s supreme court legalised abortion in 1988, it was common for Canadians who needed abortions to travel to the US. “We had a network of people who could make referrals and help them get there [to the US]. If it’s necessary, that probably would happen again – but the other way,” said Egan, spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.

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Foreign minister accuses Texas governor of extortion

‘The migration problem is not Mexico’s problem,’ Ebrard said

Date: May 2nd, 2022

Source: Mexico News Daily

The foreign minister has accused the governor of Texas of extortion for his negotiation methods with Mexican governors, who wanted U.S. officials to lift stringent border checks on vehicles.

The inspection program on vehicles was introduced by Governor Greg Abbott at Texas’ almost 2,000-kilometer border with Mexico in early April, for authorities to conduct more thorough checks to detect drugs and migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

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Mexico’s foreign minister accuses Texas governor of ‘extortion’

Texas upped inspections of commercial trucks entering the US from Mexico in a bid to pressure Mexican states increase security.

Date: May 2nd, 2022

Source: Al Jazeera

The Mexican foreign minister has accused the governor of Texas of “extortion” following an imbroglio over long wait times for commercial trucks at the Unites States-Mexico border.

In an interview on Sunday, Marcelo Ebrard accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of increasing state police inspections of commercial trucks entering the US from Mexico in April to pressure the governors of several Mexican states to increase security on their side of the border.

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Latinos should not vote for U.S. politicians who ‘mistreated’ them, Mexico president says

MEXICO CITY, April 25 (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday urged Latinos in the United States not to vote in November’s midterm elections for politicians who have “mistreated” them, in response to a comment by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Date: April 25th, 2022

Source: Reuters

Trump boasted at a rally in Ohio at the weekend that while in office, he had forced Lopez Obrador to deploy 28,000 soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out migrants after threatening to slap tariffs on Mexican goods.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Lopez Obrador said no U.S. political party should “use Mexico as a pinata” and that those with the right to vote should exercise it carefully.

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Elite anti-narcotics unit was infiltrated by organized crime: AMLO

The group worked closely with the US Drug Enforcement Administration 

Date: April 22nd, 2022

Source: Mexico News Daily

An elite anti-narcotics unit that was disbanded last year was infiltrated by organized crime, President López Obrador said Thursday.

He confirmed a Reuters report that Mexico’s organized crime-fighting Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) – whose officers collaborated with and were trained by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration – was shut down.

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EXCLUSIVE Mexico shuts elite investigations unit in blow to U.S. drugs cooperation

MEXICO CITY, April 19 (Reuters) – Mexico has disbanded a select anti-narcotics unit that for a quarter of a century worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle organized crime, two sources said, in a major blow to bilateral security cooperation.

Date: April 19th, 2022

Source: Reuters

The group was one of the Sensitive Investigative Units (SIU) operating in about 15 countries which U.S. officials tout as invaluable in dismantling powerful smuggling rings and busting countless drug lords around the globe. The units are trained by the DEA but under the control of national governments.

In Mexico, the over 50 officers in the SIU police unit were considered many of the country’s best and worked on the biggest cases such as the 2016 capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, then the boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

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Mexico’s electricity reform draws opposition from investors, U.S.

The new law would also be a major blow to climate change goals, analysts say

Source: Washington Post

Date: April 16th, 2022

Mexico’s congress will decide on Sunday whether to give the government near-total control over the country’s electricity sector in what analysts consider one of the biggest threats to the country’s private sector in years, moving away from the production of clean energy, jeopardizing foreign investment and deepening a rift with the United States.

The restructuring, championed by populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, would eliminate independent regulators and halt public bids for electricity purchases, allowing the government to generate power without regard for cost or environmental impact.

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