Russia: From the official condemnation to the balance of Morena: the messages of Mexico before the invasion of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has forced the world to take a stand. The consensus of the vast majority of democratic governments has been the resounding condemnation of Moscow’s aggression. Mexico formally belongs to that block and this week has ratified it before the United Nations. In the range of positions, however, the Government, the party that supports it, Morena, and the president have shown nuances in the tone of the disapproval. In the country there are at least three great voices of the Fourth Transformation, the project of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who speak daily about the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin a week ago. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been the most direct in expressing its rejection of the intervention, while the official formation, where there are sectors prone to justify the Russian president, balances its internal sensitivities. At the same time, the president repeats it at each press conference: he repudiates the war, but rules out imposing economic sanctions on Moscow. “We want to maintain good relations with all the governments of the world … It is very clear, we are against the invasions of Russia, China, the United States, no invasions,” he said.

Other factors can be added to this equation. First, the role of the United States, Mexico’s main trading partner. The Joe Biden Administration and the European Union lead the international support for Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard this week to discuss the conflict and inform him that the White House considers the Mexican government “an important ally” in its security agenda. The climate of high political polarization both on the national and international scene has also contributed to amplify the noise and exaggerations. A part of the opposition tries to present López Obrador as a friend of Putin, a misleading strategy as is the desire of part of the left to blame Washington and Brussels for this war.

An apparently minor case that has occurred in recent days is illustrative of these tensions. It is about the dissemination of a text from a youth group from Morena. The purpose of the letter is unequivocal, it expresses its support for the invasion of Ukraine and attributes the origin of the conflict to NATO and to the governments that precisely condemn Russia’s military offensive. The leaflet, published on social networks in the form of a statement, is signed by a group that presents itself as Juventudes de Morena in the State of Mexico. The falsehoods it contains and the justification for violence are a carbon copy of the Kremlin’s propaganda and, despite the seriousness of its claims, the insignificance of that youth group turned that note into an anecdote. However, what happened after its disclosure is significant and speaks of an environment that exists in Mexico, as in other Latin American or European countries.

To begin with, the official channels of the Russian Embassy in Mexico echoed the message, dated last Tuesday: “We greatly appreciate the support and words of solidarity from the Mexican youth of the State of Mexico in the face of the disinformation campaign around Russian special operation in Ukraine. These militants have not publicly claimed that text. On Facebook, the Morena Youth in the State of Mexico have an open page, in which it does not appear, and a private discussion group created in May 2020 with about 1,600 members.

However, the national leadership of Morena disassociated itself from the letter. “Our movement expresses its commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the principle of non-intervention. We respect the freedom of thought of our militants, however, we clarify that the following statement does not express the official position of Morena, “said the formation. Hours later, faced with the wave of criticism, he published a second notice on Twitter insisting that the note “does not represent the official position” of the organization. The Es Juventud Base Committee did the same: “We respect all forms of thought, however, the position cited in the document does not represent the values ​​or the political identity of our party-movement.” Also the senator for the State of Mexico, Martha Guerrero, assured that what was expressed does not coincide with “the generalized position of the young people from Mexico City”. “I respect it, but I don’t share it,” she added.

All these denials are framed in a context of daily dispute between López Obrador and his opponents. The opposition has been trying for days to link the government with Russia’s positions, accusing the president of being too condescending or even covering up his support. On Wednesday, the president launched a speech in which he associated criticism of the invasion from Twitter with conservative positions. “There are those who think, friends, that they are agents, as was said before, they are from the CIA or they are informants. […]. But it is not that they are agents, they are conservative, dogmatic”.

This Thursday he stated that Mexico will continue to buy fertilizers from Russia. At the same time, he has made it clear that Mexico’s interests are much closer to the White House and the entire continent than to Moscow. López Obrador has explained that his government is in contact with Washington to request a strengthening of “all productive, commercial activity, in North America in a first stage and then in all of America.” “We have to seek an agreement and, as happened in Europe, which was first the European Community, and then the European Union, the same in America”, he added. And this message distances him from those minority sectors of the left anchored in the rhetoric of the Cold War.

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