Mexico asks US to stop funding of opposition group

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO (AA) - Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the US on Friday, asking its northern neighbor to cease funding of Mexicans against Corruption, a non-profit organization dedicated to investigative journalism and one of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's major dissidents.

The leader of the group, Claudio X Gonzalez, has been one of Obrador's major detractors and the promoter of the main political opposition to the ruling political party, composed of Mexico's biggest right-wing parties.

Speaking at a news conference, Lopez Obrador pointed out that it was "reprehensible" for the US government to supply funds to a group that has hampered the president's most significant infrastructure projects.

According to the president, through legal actions, Gonzalez's group has set back projects such as "The Maya Train" and the new airport in Mexico City, Obrador's biggest projects.

"Of course, it is interference, it is interventionism, and it is promoting the coup as well. To define it conceptually, it does not necessarily have to do with the use of arms or the army.

"The coup is a brewing movement, and that can consummate it by the army or the military, but the conditions to carry out the coup are being created with the support of foreign governments, the media," said Lopez Obrador.

During the press conference, Obrador showed a receipt for $2.5 million made since 2018 when Obrador's presidency started. Through the Agency for International Development (USAID), the US Embassy financed the organization as a "donation".

This is not the first time Claudio X. Gonzalez has been questioned for his funding. In the past, journalistic investigations shed light on Gonzalez's financing, which includes the highest business elite in Mexico and political rivals of Lopez Obrador.

As a response, Mexicans against Corruption went to social media, calling Obrador's administration to cease the attack on them, stating that their commitment is to the Mexican society and democracy.

"We energetically reject the use of concepts such as interference, intervention, or coup, uttered from the National Palace, to disqualify our work," the organization wrote on Twitter.

This diplomatic petition rises amidst the announcement of the scheduled visit of US vice president Kamala Harris to Mexico on June 8. The meeting will be centered on migration from Mexico, and Central and South America.

US President Joe Biden had entrusted Harris with the task to see for the root causes of migration from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.