Mexico’s AMLO calls out US ‘oligarchy’ at Biden’s ‘democracy’ summit

In some countries, the oligarchy reigns with a facade of democracy. How can we talk about democracy if the elites dominate and not the majorities? How can we talk about democracy if in recent times, the concentration of wealth has been given in small hands? Because he was invited to the U.S. government's so-called Summit for Democracy, which has nothing to do with democracy. It's a political attempt by the U.S. to unite its allies against China and Russia to wage the new Cold War. And Mexico, as the U.S. southern neighbor, was invited to speak at this summit, and the Mexican president called out the United States for its hypocrisy and said that it's an oligarchy, not a democracy. Now, to be fair, he didn't name the United States directly in these comments, but we have to understand the comments that he made in the context of another speech that he gave just a few weeks before, in which he condemned the United States as an oligarchy. So, it was very clear in his comments that AMLO was referring to the United States when he said that it's not actually a democracy, it's an oligarchy. I translated AMLO's full speech at this summit, and I have a full English-language transcript over at geopoliticaleconomy.com. I will link to it in the description below. In this speech, he said, And he said that if we want real democracy, we need greater equality, calling for a separation of economic power and political power. For example, how can we talk about democracy if the elites dominate and not the majorities? How can we talk about democracy if there is no separation of economic power and political power? How can we talk about democracy if in recent times the concentration of wealth has been, in a few hands, the most offensive in the history of the world? The fortunes of a minority have increased without limits, without any moral recourse, while there are a billion human beings who live on less than a dollar a day. The main point of AMLO's speech was essentially that capitalism, this system of extreme inequality with billionaire oligarchs controlling everything, is not democratic. He said, He said many countries have a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, or assimilated and mediated democracy. And he said, how can we talk about democracy if there is no separation of economic power and political power? AMLO opened this very powerful speech with a very provocative line. He said, many of the great crimes against humanity have been committed in the name of God or in the name of democracy. Many of the great crimes against humanity have been committed in the name of God or in the name of democracy. It is important, therefore, to return to the original and true meaning of the concept of democracy. You had Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada. You had other Western leaders who were looking at him when he was speaking, and he is clearly calling them out. Because everyone knows that when AMLO said that crimes against humanity were committed in the name of democracy, he is referring to the United States, obviously. He is referring to the Iraq War, which was an illegal US invasion to destroy an independent sovereign state and lead to a million deaths. And the US did it in the name of democracy. Or Afghanistan, or Libya, or Syria, or Yugoslavia. There are so many examples of these crimes that were committed, and AMLO is clearly calling them out to their face. Now, I mentioned that it is even clearer what the context was, if you consider that back on February 28th, AMLO gave a press conference in which he condemned the US State Department for meddling in his government. And he said that the US is not a democracy, it is run by the oligarchy. So those were the words that he had said just a few weeks before. There is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States, because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern. He also criticized the United States saying, it still will not abandon the two-century-old policy, the Monroe Doctrine, of thinking themselves as the world's government. And he criticized the US for backing an unelected coup regime in Peru. Now, AMLO made these remarks at the so-called Summit for Democracy at a time of growing tensions. There are numerous congressmen in the United States, Republicans, who are calling for the US military to invade Mexico in the name of fighting drug cartels. And in response to that, I did a separate video, which actually went viral, and I'll link to it in the description below. And AMLO gave this incredible speech, this passionate leftist nationalist speech at a huge rally in Mexico City, flooded with people, in which he said, Mexico is not a US colony or a protectorate. And he said, Mexico is an independent and free country. And he also held this rally to honor the anniversary of the Mexican government's nationalization of oil. And he recently nationalized Mexico's lithium reserves, which now belong to the Mexican people. Mexico is an independent and free country. Not a colony or a protectorate of the United States. And they can threaten us with committing any atrophy. But we will never, never allow them to violate our sovereignty and trample on the dignity of our homeland. While AMLO is condemning the hypocrisy of US oligarchs, I should point out that, I mean, he is one of the most popular leaders in the entire world, at least among large countries. There's a major US-based polling firm that does regular surveys looking at approval ratings of leaders around the world. And AMLO, since he came in in late 2018, has consistently had an approval rating of between 60 and 70 percent. In December, he had a 72 percent approval rating. And that's compared to US President Joe Biden, who only has a 41 percent approval rating and 51 percent opposition. Canada's Justin Trudeau, only 39 percent support, 54 percent opposition. The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, 34 percent support, 53 percent opposition. In France, it's even worse. The neoliberal right-wing banker president Emmanuel Macron, he has only the approval of around one quarter of French people. More than half of the French population opposes him. And there are huge protests going on right now against his neoliberal right-wing economic reforms. So, when AMLO says that Mexico is more democratic than the US and the US is an oligarchy, that's not hyperbole, it's not exaggerating. The polls show that it's true. But, of course, the so-called US Summit for Democracy has nothing to do with democracy. I am working on another report which will be out, which is about the right-wing authoritarian regimes that were invited to the so-called Summit for Democracy, including the authoritarian leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the authoritarian president of Poland, Duda, the authoritarian leader of India, Narendra Modi, and the pro-fascist leader of Italy, Giorgio Meloni, who has praised the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. So, obviously, this so-called Summit for Democracy is not about democracy. This is an attempt by the United States to bring together allies to build a bloc to wage the new Cold War on China and Russia. China and Russia were not invited, of course, and many of their allies were not invited. US adversaries were not invited, including democracies like Venezuela and Nicaragua, which have democratically elected governments. Instead of inviting them, the US government invited right-wing opposition figures who are, of course, supported by the US, who are from Venezuela and from Nicaragua, although they live in the US. And finally, the most absurd aspect of all is that the United States invited Taiwan, which is not a country. Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China. On paper, according to international law, the United States recognizes that fact. When the US normalized relations with Taiwan in 1972, Washington signed three communiques starting in 1972. The first communique says very clearly that the US recognizes that Taiwan is part of China, that there's one China, and yet the Biden administration is showing how it supports Taiwanese separatists by inviting them, who are not a country, they do not represent a country, by inviting them to this so-called Summit for Democracy. So it's really the summit of US proxies and allies and client regimes and puppets and running dogs to wage the new Cold War on China and Russia and any independent country that Washington doesn't like and is targeting for regime change. That is why it's very impressive that Mexico's leftist president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Amlo, called out the United States to its face the hypocrisy of the US oligarchy. And again, I always want to stress this point, that Mexico is a very important country. There's a lot of racism toward Mexico in the United States, but this is the 10th most populous country on Earth. It has a large growing economy. The population is growing as well. Mexico has applied to join the BRICS system. So, I mean, this is a very important country and yet the US treats it as its so-called backyard with this very neo-colonialist mentality. And more and more, leftist leaders in Mexico are not tolerating this neo-colonialist behavior and they're calling it out, as Amlo did in this speech. So, if you want to check it out, you can go to geopoliticaleconomy.com. I have a link in the description below to the transcript. And I also will link to the other reports I did on Amlo, including the most recent video looking at the amazing rally he gave in which he condemned the Republicans who were threatening to invade Mexico and said that Mexico is not a US colony. With that said, I'm going to conclude here. I'm Ben Norton. This is Geopolitical Economy Report. If you like the work that we do, please consider going to geopoliticaleconomy.com slash support or you become a patron over at patreon.com slash geopoliticaleconomy. We are completely independent and have no institutional support. So, anything that you could provide would really go a long way to help sustain our original journalism and analysis. I want to thank everyone for watching or listening. Please subscribe and I'll see you next time.