Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "Mexican President Says He Will Not Attend Summit Of Americas" video.

@Latnman101 lol, no. The U.S. isn’t forcing Mexico to look elsewhere. While I think AMLO is misguided in this particular instance, it’s common for Mexico and the U.S. to disagree over foreign policy. Mexico takes pride in not being under the political thumb of the U.S., and takes great pride in being independent (all the while, both countries are deeply interdependent). AMLO is a populist, and he takes this disagreement farther than other Mexican politicians because he desperately needs to pump up his popularity. But it is delusional to think AMLO will make common cause with the Chinese or Russians when Mexico and the U.S. are so interdependent and economically and socially intertwined. I think disinviting Nicaragua is a mistake, though.
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This is a meeting of the OAS. Cuba is not a member. It has attended the summit in previous years *at the invitation of the hosting country*. Venezuela and Nicaragua probably should be invited, although Venezuela’s government is basically a criminal cartel hostile to its neighbors and the U.S. There is a strong case to disinvite Venezuela for their hostility and for their game playing with the OAS itself. Unless I am missing something in current events, I’m not sure what the basis is for excluding Nicaragua. That seems like going too far.
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On Nicaragua, for sure I agree with you. Cuba isn’t even a member of the OAS. When the OAS extended an invitation to rejoin, Cuba refused it. Non-members are invited at the host country’s discretion (and yes, Cuba has been invited before). I’m not crystal clear on how Venezuela can be disinvited as last I heard, they were a member of the OAS and should be invited. However, they’ve quit and rejoined and screwed around. The government is a criminal cartel. Not only are they undemocratic and corrupt, they are a threat to their neighbors. Like Cuba, they murder and imprison opposition leaders. I’d call Venezuela a gray area.
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@JorgeMartinez-bw7nl Two continents. Just saying.
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AMLO is a dunce, but Nicaragua should have been invited.
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@JorgeMartinez-bw7nl Nicaragua maybe, but I don’t see how we can have any constructive dealings with Venezuela and Cuba while their current regimes are in power. I’m sure people will bring up the People’s Republic of China as a hostile dictatorship that we still do business with. The might have a point, but a counterpoint is that the PRC is not a member of either ASEAN or SEATO. I think AMLO is a populist imbecil, but I get that Mexico’s foreign policy regularly diverges from U.S. fp. Mexican politicians have to be seen as not beholden to the U.S., and national pride demands at least the perception of independence from the colossus to the north. (And the truth is, the U.S. does not dominate Mexico politically, despite the great interdependence of the two countries.) AMLO takes it too far, but that’s how pinche populists do.
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@JorgeMartinez-bw7nl to be fair, AMLO is a socialist goose. He squawks like a socialist, but is closer to being a trump-like populist (and that’s why they get along so well). I do think AMLO’s ambition is to return Mexico to single party rule under Morena, but fat chance. Remember that way back in the day he was PRI. He jumped ship to PRD so he could be in charge of something. He would like to re-nationalize the petroleum industry, but he won’t. I doubt he could. The reason I say AMLO is trump-like is that he’s made a lot of populist promises but hasn’t delivered. He made great promises about reforming Mexico’s educational system, especially at the university level. Those promises are largely unfulfilled. He dropped the ball wrt trade unions on NAFTA II. His anti-corruption campaign was aimed at political enemies. Indeed, it looks like he was primarily interested in monopolizing corruption rather than fight it. Like I said, he talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk. He had an opportunity to address COVID as a national issue that required a whole-of-society government response, but was instead quite cavalier about the pandemic. Most of the response was left up to the states. Personally, I tend towards financial conservatism (I voted for Reagan the first time I voted), but if someone is elected as a progressive, I want to see progress. Do what you said you would do. 😉 Mexico would have been better off with either the PAN (Anaya) or PRI (Meade) candidates as President (Just like the U.S. would have been better off under Clinton, as much as I detested her).
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Mexico likes to be contrarian to U.S. foreign policy on occasion. It reinforces its sense of independence from the colossus to the North. AMLO does this to a greater degree because he’s a populist trying to further his personal power. He’s really an imbecil in many ways. I hope his coalition falls apart.
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I can see excluding Cuba and Venezuela. They’re both openly hostile to the U.S. and to democracy in general. I believe Nicaragua is influenciable. It has been open to foreign investments. It has experienced swings of the pendulum between democratic norms and single party monopoly (but even that single party has split).
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