López Obrador calls opponents foreign agents and traitors

In an attempt to stoke nationalism and justify his policies, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has begun to brand his opponents as “traitors” and accuses them of working for other governments.

Analysts say López Obrador is beginning to resemble the right-wing Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, who calls anyone who opposes him a foreign agent.

The issue came to a head last week, when López Obrador tried to sidestep legal challenges to one of his pet projects by declaring the construction of a tourist train an issue of “national security,” without explaining why a tourist project justified that statement.

On Monday, the president said it was a case of foreign intervention by environmentalists paid by the US government, a compelling point in a country that has been invaded multiple times.

“Pseudo-environmentalists financed by the United States government come from Mexico City and other parts of the country and promote these protections for us,” said López Obrador. “Then, a procedure established by law is used, which is to declare this work of national security for many reasons, because a foreign government is intervening.”

The activist Pepe Urbina presented one of the legal challenges that paralyzed the so-called Mayan Train, which makes its way through the jungle of the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan.

The project threatens many cenotes, which are freshwater cavities typical of the Yucatan, where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered.

“We are being defamed with this claim that we work for the United States government,” said Urbina, who earns his living as a professional diver and denies having received funds from the neighboring country to the north. “It’s absurd,” he assured.

The Mayan Train plans a 1,500-kilometer journey through the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting spas and archaeological sites. López Obrador has exempted it from environmental impact statements, but a judge disagreed and froze work on a 60-kilometer stretch of road between Cancún and Tulum.

Antonella Vázquez, a lawyer who voluntarily handled the appeals, also denied receiving funding from the US government.

“It is a pity that they disqualify, just to insist on a national security that does not apply to a tourist train,” said Vázquez, who stressed that the judge in the case refused on Monday to cancel the suspension, despite the fact that the government has begun to ignore it.

Over the weekend, López Obrador used similar language to attack anyone, environmentalists or businessmen, who opposed his plan to give preference in purchasing electricity to government plants, even though they have old and dirty technologies, by generate energy by burning diesel and coal, on private gas, wind and solar plants.

López Obrador’s actions in the matter of electrical energy led the governments of the United States and Canada to file a complaint against Mexico under the T-MEC trade agreement, which prohibits discrimination against foreign companies.

They “are defending the oil companies, the foreign electricity companies. They are traitors to the country, ”said López Obrador about the internal opposition to his plans to favor the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said López Obrador’s comments sound more like those of European authoritarian figures. “This is like Victor Orban, like Putin,” Hope said, referring to the Hungarian Prime Minister and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

From the point of view of the Mexican president, “social movements, government agencies are suspicious by definition. And if they have any kind, if they are connected to some kind of international network, even more so,” added Hope.

“What follows is to start criminalizing the opposition, right? Betraying the country is a crime in the Penal Code, ”she recalled. “I don’t think she’s there yet, but they’re out there posing, let’s say, she’s laying it on the table.”

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