Maduro: the undesirable guest to AMLO’s possession

AMLO would be incoherent and would give a bad message to Mexicans and the world by allowing Nicolás Maduro to be in his presidential possession

The outrage that Nicolás Maduro's presence has provoked in the presidential inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, broke out in social media. The former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, and the renowned journalist of Univisión, Jorge Ramos, were some of those who spoke. "What makes a dictator like Nicolás Maduro invited to the inauguration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador?" Asks Ramos. While Fox says: "Maduro cannot step on Mexican soil."

Leer en español: Maduro: el invitado indeseable a la posesión de AMLO

However, for me, the underlying controversy beyond the invitation, in the first place, is that Obrador is being incoherent. Why? During his presidential campaign the current elected president of Mexico, preached to fight against corruption, respect human rights, reject repression and declared several times, after being elected, "Mexico has already changed."

But, with the simple fact of seeing Maduro in his act of possession, Obrador already loses coherence between what he says and does since Maduro represents a violation of human rights, corruption, and repression.

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To cite some examples of what has happened in the government of Nicolás Maduro and that reinforces the argument of the lack of coherence in which Obrador falls, I mention the following: in terms of repression, the Observatory of Social Conflict of Venezuela, reveals in a report that for 2017 there were 163 deaths in the protests for the use of force by the Army.

The UN, for its part, in what has to do with human rights violations, denounced in August of the same year that there were 505 extrajudicial executions at the hands of the Venezuelan Police.

In what has to do with corruption, the newspaper ABC of Spain, points out that Maduro is being investigated for embezzling, 1,200 million dollars from the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. According to BBC Mundo , Maduro received 35 million dollars from Odebrecht to finance his recent campaign for the presidency.

In the second place, another important thing is added: the distrust that will generate among its readers with the presence of Maduro. The tiredness of Mexican society, among other things, with corruption, was felt when electing Obrador, who promised them a change by condemning those who had committed acts of corruption and anyone who tried to commit them in his government.

For this reason, the first step of Obrador to start as colloquially said "with right foot" in its fight against corruption is rejecting the corrupt. In this case Nicolás Maduro. Otherwise, it will be a hard blow for those who sought in Obrador a strong enemy of the scourge of corruption that bleeds not only Mexico but Latin America in general.

What should Obrador do?

Instead of inviting Maduro, a symbolic act with which Obrador would start his applause in the midst of applause is to invite Venezuelans who emigrated to Mexico because of the crisis in their country – a blame for the Chavista model that Maduro continues to impose. The message, if it were done, would show that Obrador will be on the side of the oppressed and not of the oppressor.

Those who voted for him would see with pride that Obrador showed respect for the dead at the hands of the Maduro regime, something that would be very consistent with his discourse of respect for human rights. For other Obrador, it would be a synonym of change of the Latin American left in foreign policy matters against the Maduro government.

Latin American Post | Edwin Guerrero Nova

Translated from: 'Maduro: el invitado indeseable a la posesión presidencial de AMLO'

* Writer's opinion does not represent this newspaper

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