Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador showed his “contempt” for America during a recent interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when he explained what it would take for his country to help stem the flow of illegal immigration at the southern border. As many noted, his list of demands sounded like he was trying to extort President Biden in an election year. He wants the U.S. to give $20 billion to poor Latin American and Caribbean countries per year, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo, and legalize Mexican nationals that came to the U.S. Historian Victor Davis Hanson said it goes to show AMLO’s “absolute contempt for us.”
Any “normal” president, according to VDH, could easily change that, however.
“All we would have to do, any normal president would slap a 10 percent tax on the $60 billion of remittances that go to Mexico, they would declare the cartels a foreign terrorist organization, finish the wall, and maybe help out with the military on the border, and he wouldn't talk like that,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “He would have more respect and they would be much nicer to us, the Mexican government, because they would have some deference to us. But now they're ridiculing us and they think it’s a joke. You see, all of these people coming out of the woodwork that think the border is over for good and they can come and go as they please. They're essentially right, at least for the next nine or 10 months."
During his interview with "60 Minutes," AMLO said failure to comply with his demands would result in the "flow of migrants" continuing.
Asked whether that was tantamount to "diplomatic blackmail," AMLO said he was just "speaking frankly."
"We have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think," he added.