It’s no coincidence that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro shouted “¡Viva Mexico!” during his inauguration for a second six-year term on Thursday: Mexico was one of the few Western democracies that sent a representative to the ceremony, which was boycotted by United States, the 28-country European Union and most Latin American countries.
Mexico’s new leftist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, breaking with his country’s nearly two-decade-old policy of active diplomatic support for democracy and human rights around the world, argued that he’s just following a constitutional mandate not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.
That’s nonsense or, at best, a misleading interpretation of Mexico’s Constitution. Article 89 calls on the president to follow both a foreign policy of “non-intervention” in other countries’ affairs and to conduct a foreign policy guided by “the respect, protection and promotion of human rights.”
