The Campaign to Smear AMLO as a Narco
As the Mexican presidential campaign heats up, media outlets and think tanks are desperately trying to tie AMLO and his popular Morena party to drug traffickers. It's a ludicrous smear that smacks of elite desperation.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaking during a conference on November 11, 2021 in Colima, Mexico. (Leonardo Montecillo / Agencia Press South / Getty Images)
Mexico is headed for the largest election in its history. On June 2, 2024, the presidency, both houses of Congress, nine governorships, thirty-one state legislatures, and thousands of local offices will all be contested. One name that will not be anywhere on the ballot, however, is that of Mexico’s most famous politician: current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who is limited by the constitution to a single, six-year term.
This has not made him any less of a target for attacks. As the election season heats up, AMLO continues to be a lightning rod for another campaign, one attempting to link him and the party he founded, Morena, with the drug cartels.
Accusation #1: There will be an alliance between Morena and organized crime in Mexico’s 2024 elections
On January 18, the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University published its Mexico Country Outlook 2024. The “nonpartisan” institute, a hub of multinational energy interests financed by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, British Petroleum, the Koch Foundation, the Mexican Business Council, and Kimberly-Clark de México (headed by opposition figure Claudio X. González Laporte), plays an important role in the cross-border media ecosystem as a purveyor of “nonpartisan analysis” and “data-driven research” that can then be lapped up by corporate outlets in need of an expert interview or report to cite.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.