The former president of Mexico, AMLO, at his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas. Photo: X/@lopezobrador_.
Former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has come out of his political retirement to issue an extensive, detailed reflection on the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States. In it, López Obrador condemned the United States government’s interference, expressed his unconditional support for President Claudia Sheinbaum, and attributed Donald Trump’s shift regarding Mexico to being surrounded by “inexperienced, resentful, and fanatical” people who have led him into “vile and sinister” adventures.
“I am not surprised that in the United States government’s onslaught against Mexico, the usual interventionist and unscrupulous practices are being used, now under the pretext of combating migration and narcoterrorism,” AMLO wrote in his statement, published on Wednesday, June 3. “It is clear that these attacks are not motivated, as our president Sheinbaum rightly said last Sunday, by a genuine interest in solving the serious problem that unfortunately afflicts Americans due to the prolonged pandemic of drug addiction. No, it is a matter of a political and electoral nature.”
Por el bien de todos, que regrese el otro Trump.https://t.co/BHQVEInscT pic.twitter.com/U2T2se3X7G
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) June 4, 2026
AMLO then added that “some US officials are plotting to weaken [the governing party] MORENA and strengthen the right-wing opposition in Mexico with the idea of reestablishing a submissive, corrupt, mafia-like, and cruel government, and thus, vulnerable, subordinate, and loyal to their interventionist designs. Moreover, they trust that they will be able to deceive many American citizens again with the Hitlerian propaganda tactic of repeating and repeating lies, with a view to the upcoming elections in November, to continue blaming Mexico for each and every one of their ills.”
However, the focus of AMLO’s message is the shift, from his perspective, that Donald Trump has undergone in his second term.
“The Trump of now is different from the one I dealt with,” wrote AMLO. He then listed a series of issues they resolved during Trump’s first term “for the good of our peoples, through reasoned dialogue and without confrontation,” including the release of former Mexican Defense Secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos.
“While I was president, he refrained from speaking ill of Mexicans and from mentioning the wall,” AMLO continued. “We signed the new trade agreement. He [Trump] did not impose barriers on exports under the pretext of health, environmental, or other reasons, as is common with tomatoes, tuna, or livestock. He also did not increase remittance fees. He accepted our proposal not to include Mexico’s oil in the treaty, out of respect for our energy sovereignty. He helped us during the COVID pandemic. On two occasions, he offered me support from agents or special forces to combat crime and understood my refusal. At the end of his term, the relations were very good. There was so much trust in our government that, when the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] and the Department of Justice, in revenge against the Mexican Army, fabricated a case against General Salvador Cienfuegos, Defense Secretary during [former] President [Enrique] Peña’s administration, 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 to this, ordering that the case be filed in Mexico. Here, it was indeed proven that it was a political retaliation to subjugate a fundamental institution of the Mexican State that, according to the mentality and interests of Washington officials and the US embassy, should align with them, as they had achieved with the Navy Secretariat during [former president Felipe] Calderón’s term.”
AMLO also recounted that on one occasion, Trump asked him if it was advisable to label drug traffickers as terrorists and that he had taken the Mexican president’s opinion against it into account. In this part of the open letter, López Obrador was particularly harsh on the United States’ policy of “kidnapping, hunting, and extraterritorially executing anyone without evidence, trial, or sentence.” “It is like the ‘law of flight’ or ‘kill them on the spot,’ the most abominable violation of human rights,” AMLO noted.
“Donald Trump, at a public event we held at the White House, acknowledged that Mexican migrants were workers and contributed to the development of the United States,” AMLO added.
“Why has he changed so much?” wondered the former Mexican president. After a series of reflections on the possible reasons, he concluded that it is because Trump “has surrounded himself with inexperienced, resentful, and fanatical” people who have led him on “vile and sinister adventures.”
He appealed to the other Trump, to govern again as before, “and to tell the leeches that surround and incite him to go to hell.”
“For the good of everyone, may the other Trump return,” he concluded.
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This is the fifth time the popular former president has come out of the political retirement he imposed on himself upon leaving office. In addition, this is his third message this year related to US interventionism in Latin America.
AMLO’s first message came after the bombing of Caracas and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. His second message was due to the announcement of the US energy blockade on Cuba. This third message comes after the United States Department of Justice requested preventive detention for the extradition of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and other Sinaloan officials. The department also requested the publication of leaks allegedly showing the involvement of other MORENA governors with organized crime.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
