Former President AMLO blasts US interference and backs Sheinbaum in rare public statement

Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday accused the U.S. government of using “interventionist practices” in an attempt to weaken the ruling Morena party and strengthen Mexico’s “right-wing opposition.” Via his social media accounts and on his personal website. López Obrador published a statement with the heading “My unconditional support for President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and a Respectful Reflection on President Donald Trump.” Por el bien de todos, que regrese el otro Trump.https://t.co/BHQVEInscT pic.twitter.com/U2T2se3X7G — Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) June 4, 2026 “It does not surprise me that, in the onslaught by the United States government against that of Mexico, the same old interventionist and completely unscrupulous practices are being used, now under the pretext of combating migration and narcoterrorism,” he wrote. “It is clear that these attacks are not motivated, as our president Sheinbaum rightly said last Sunday, by any genuine interest in solving the serious problem that the United States sadly suffers from due to the prolonged pandemic of drug addiction. No, this is a matter of a political and electoral nature,” wrote AMLO, as the former president is best known. He released his statement three days after Sheinbuam delivered a forceful speech denouncing U.S. interference in Mexican affairs. The main examples of U.S. interference she pointed to were the alleged participation of CIA officers in a drug lab raid in Chihuahua in April without the federal government’s knowledge or authorization, U.S. authorities’ request for the arrest and extradition of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and other current and former officials accused of drug trafficking, and “million-dollar” social media campaigns against her government. Does the United States have “a legitimate interest in helping Mexico?” Sheinbaum asked. “Is it a genuine commitment to combating organized crime? Or are we witnessing sectors of the American far right using our country to position themselves ahead of their 2026 elections? Or perhaps they intend to influence the 2027 elections in our country? These are not rhetorical questions,” she said. AMLO: ‘Some U.S. officials are plotting to weaken Morena’ On the first page of his five-page statement, López Obrador asserted that “some United States officials are plotting to weaken Morena and strengthen the right-wing opposition in Mexico with the idea of once again having at their disposal a submissive, corrupt, mafioso and cruel government, which is therefore vulnerable, subordinate and faithful to their interventionist designs.” “In addition, they are confident they can once again deceive many U.S. citizens with the Hitlerian propaganda tactic of repeating lies over and over in the run-up to the November elections [in the United States], in order to keep blaming Mexico for each and every one of their ills,” he wrote. Sheinbaum blames state officials as new evidence shows CIA joined multiple security operations in Chihuahua this year ‘The Trump of today is different from the one I dealt with’  AMLO, who finished his six-year term in 2024 and has largely refrained from commenting on political issues since then, claimed that Trump’s attitude, especially in relation to Mexico, has changed in his second term compared to his first term. “Speaking from what I myself know as a fact and can prove, the Trump of today is different from the one I dealt with,” he wrote. López Obrador wrote that Trump “refrained from speaking ill of Mexicans” during his first term “and from mentioning the [border] wall.” AMLO also pointed to a range of positive developments in the Mexico-U.S. relationship during his presidency, including the signing of the USMCA free trade pact, and claimed he had very few disagreements with Trump and that the U.S. president understood his opposition to the proposed deployment of U.S. forces to Mexico and heeded his advice on not designating drug traffickers as terrorists. “At the end of his term,” López Obrador wrote, “relations were so good and there was so much trust in our government that, when agents of the DEA and the Department of Justice, in an act of revenge against the Mexican Army, fabricated a case against General Salvador Cienfuegos, Minister of Defense during the administration of President Peña [Nieto], and arrested him in the United States, I asked President Trump to allow us to review the evidence because we doubted its authenticity.” “He agreed and ordered that the case be transferred to Mexico,” AMLO wrote, noting that Cienfuegos was found to be innocent. Despite notable ideological differences, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador maintained a relatively warm relationship with his U.S. counterpart during the U.S. president’s first term in office. (Cuartoscuro) López Obrador noted that during his 2020 visit to the White House, Trump “acknowledged that Mexican migrants are hard-working and contribute to the development of the United States.” He then posed the question, “Why has President Trump changed so much in just a few years?” ‘For the good of all, may the other Trump return’  AMLO — who penned his statement from his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas, on the same day that The Los Angeles Times reported that the United States is investigating two other Morena party governors for alleged criminal offenses— sought to answer his own question. “One could answer that these are different times and circumstances have changed; that this is his last term as president and that he is not obliged to hold back because re-election is not at stake; or that he simply does not exercise his leadership directly as he did before and now relies more often, when making decisions, on his inexperienced, resentful and fanatical advisers, who are not exactly statesmen,” he wrote. López Obrador subsequently said that he didn’t buy the “change of circumstances” explanation because “in the case of Mexico, President Sheinbaum has been efficient, responsible, prudent and respectful” — “in essence … the best president of Mexico of our time.” He also wrote that he didn’t believe that the U.S. president’s “new way of governing” is related to him being in his second term, “because for a person like Trump history matters more than the position and he would not like to be remembered as being responsible for an economic and social welfare crisis that also caused his party to lose elections.” “… Rather, I attribute Trump’s surprising change to his false friends and advisers, both domestic and foreign, who have been getting him involved in vile and sinister adventures,” AMLO wrote without mentioning any names. “For that very reason, I do not rule out — indeed I hope — that President Trump changes course. Hopefully he will go back to governing as he did before, with enthusiasm, personally, without delegating essential things, trusting his practical judgment and his sure instinct, and hopefully he will send to hell the parasites that surround him and egg him on, whoever they may be,” he wrote. “… For the good of all, may the other Trump return,” concluded AMLO, who retains significant political influence in Morena — a party he founded — despite retiring from public life at the end of his presidency and handing over the reins of the “fourth transformation” political movement to Sheinbaum. At her Thursday morning press conference, Sheinbaum thanked López Obrador for his support. On Monday, she said she didn’t believe Trump was leading the U.S. interference “offensive” against Mexico. Last month, Sheinbaum claimed that Trump himself was not pressing for U.S. intervention in Mexico, although he has said on various occasions that U.S. forces would, or could, take action against cartels in Mexico. Rather, “some people” who advise Trump are pushing for U.S. action in Mexico, she said May 20, expressing a similar view to that articulated by AMLO in his statement. Mexico News Daily  The post Former President AMLO blasts US interference and backs Sheinbaum in rare public statement appeared first on Mexico News Daily