The leftist president has said his measures benefit consumers, while critics counter they raise costs, undermine investment and are unfair to international companies.
NOOOOO NOT THE INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES!!! YOU DIDNT THINK ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES :wojak-nooo:
Speaking at a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador shrugged off the controversy, saying his policies did not violate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact, and promised to answer the U.S. grievances "point-by-point."
"We're acting in line with public interest, defending the Mexican people against greedy companies used to stealing," the president said after projecting on a video screen a jaunty Mexican song called "Uy, que miedo" ("Ooh, how scary").
:michael-laugh: :data-laughing: :lenin-laugh: :amlo-uy: :amlo-posting-laugh:
this is the og version he appears to have used for playing the clip
"This is about ultra-conservative interests used to looting, to stealing," he said. "They thought they owned the country."
:gigachad:
The dispute specifically relates to measures taken by Mexico which the U.S. Trade Representative argues undermine American companies in Mexico and U.S.-produced energy in favor of Mexican state-owned power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).
Politician in one country doing what's in his country's best interest after years of being exploited by imperialists? :shocked-pikachu:
Unfortunately this is also an excellent predictor of a coup attempt, looking at other Latin American states such as Brazil (which was working on nationalizing its oil supply when the CIA-backed military coup happened).
Not sure if they can pull off a military coup in Latin America at this point
That's why I said "attempt," though I think Mexico would be a very interesting case because of it having such a huge land border with the US, which would surely make smuggling supplies to the backed faction much easier than in previous failures like in Venezuela (where "aid" that was military equipment got intercepted).
I think US intelligence finally understands that the risk of botching a coup outweighs the benefits of even entertaining the idea. Even if you oust the guy, you still need to make sure your sponsored replacement puppet can be put in and cement his power quickly. Else, you create a power vacuum which can snowball into an widespread economic disruption. Then you have to consider ramifications with foreign relations.
Take Libya and Syria for example. Sure, the US might have benefited in the short term by making an example out of them and getting some resources out of it but in the long term? They ended up catalyzing the creation of the opposing pole, like China, Russia and Iran along with other countries who realize they might be on the cross hairs one day on the whim of Washington. Especially in Libya's case where Gaddafi did everything he could to appease the West and they shoved a knife through his rectum for the trouble. To say nothing of the long-term ramifications in all aspects of both events, like the refugee crisis.
That makes sense, I'm just worried about flailing, especially if Trump wins again or something and then the decisions, while not totally unconstrained, will be much less reasonable in terms of realpolitik.
Yeah sorry didn't mean to imply I didn't agree, just staving off my own doomer pangs with a reminder about the collapsing empire
That's a good point though about the land border
I'm trying to imagine how could a military coup be pulled off, considering one of the first moves AMLO did was rely on the military for key projects thus making them close allies. You could say the relationship between AMLO and the military is closer than it was with previous presidents. A military coup is out of the question, so the only way it could be potentially be performed is through cartel violence but even then the interim president would be the secretary of state who seems to also be heavily involved with AMLO's vision and is championing the same presidential candidates AMLO is championing, and if Morena already has overwhelming popular support, imagine the sort of support it would have with a bona fide martyr.
Plus AMLO has been otherwise an excellent administrator of the bourgeoisie state and has sticked close to the USMC in every other regard, I don't think a coup is in the cards, it's just a couple of investors throwing a hissy fit. I don't think Biden can risk moving the carpet that much at the south without furthering the inflationary crisis. A dumber president might though. Plus the US does have a bit of negotiating leverage without doing coup shit, like taxing remittances which are mondo important for the mexican economy.
:wojak-nooo: what about the fossil fuel investors!?
:gigachad: haha no more gasolina
funny how he's one of the better new ''pinkwave'' leaders, compared to boric and the guy in peru
Weird knock-on effect of Russia invading Ukraine, the number of safe moves the Mexican government can make has expanded considerably.
Undermine whose investment?! Having electricity is a public good and should be a public utility, letting foreign investors interfere can only harm people and raise prices, and bleeding the state owned utility CFE dry or dismantling it is the ultimate goal of those "investors"
This article doesn't even explain what policy changes were implemented to prompt the complaint.
“Mexican President AMLO proceeded to play ‘Despacito’ so loudly the speaker’s bass collapsed”
