Explaining the Mexican president’s arrogance toward Joe Biden

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s (AMLO) outrageous demands of Joe Biden in exchange for assistance with illegal immigration suggest AMLO has leverage over the man in the White House. AMLO wants $20 billion from US taxpayers yearly for Latin American countries, amnesty for Mexican illegal immigrants, and an end to the Cuba embargo and Venezuela sanctions.

Historian Victor Davis Hanson told Sean Hannity that AMLO “has absolute contempt for us.” Former Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) asked Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Sunday if she was as offended as he was. Blackburn replied correctly that AMLO would not have conducted himself in such an aggressive manner with Donald Trump.

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A 2022 Mexican report by longtime journalist Roberto Fuentes Vivar contains troubling details that indicate Biden is compromised. Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit investigated the relationship between former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s (2012–2018) family company and Baxter International, a multinational headquartered in Illinois. Fuentes reported that Baxter received $644 million from more than 1,000 medical contracts during Peña’s tenure.

The majority of Baxter’s contracts were awarded directly, without competition. The director of Mexico’s national health institute identified 20 cases of possible irregularities in tenders in which Baxter participated. Fuentes wrote that “Baxter has a long history of complaints in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Central America, many of which I have reported on.”

Fuentes wondered if AMLO would talk to Biden in their July 12, 2022, meeting about Peña and Baxter, “because there is ample evidence that Joe Biden has financial interests in Baxter.” An example Fuentes cited is Baxter recovering a medical contract it lost in 2014 after the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) illegally jailed more than a dozen people.

When Baxter’s contract with the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS) was expiring in 2014, the law required competitive bids. Despite this, US embassy personnel insisted to IGSS’s directors that they simply extend Baxter’s contract. IGSS complied with the law, which resulted in a Baxter competitor winning the contract.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez (2012–2015) stated Biden “pressured us not only in Guatemala but when I visited him in Washington to give Baxter the contract.” Pérez said US embassy officials visited his private and general secretaries accompanied by Baxter officials and insisted that Baxter should recover the contract. Pérez also said Biden was a partner in Baxter.

The American Thinker reported that Biden had traveled to Guatemala three times in 2014 and 2015 to pressure the government to extend the CICIG’s mandate, set to expire on September 3, 2015. Biden conditioned $1 billion in aid per year to the extension. Pérez said that, after he urged Biden not to give the appearance of ordering the CICIG’s continuation, Biden told the press: “The CICIG is staying, period.”

The CICIG illegally imprisoned the six IGSS directors and other employees along with representatives of the company to which IGSS had granted the contract in 2014. Guatemala’s national auditors in 2017 ruled IGSS had properly granted the contract to Baxter’s competitor. All accused were acquitted in 2019 after having spent nearly four years in prison without bail. Two IGSS directors committed suicide while in prison.

US Ambassador Todd Robinson and CICIG Commissioner Iván Velásquez committed crimes to recover a contract for Baxter, for which Guatemala’s former president said Biden had lobbied. Any possible wrongdoing regarding the IGSS contract was outside the CICIG’s mandate.

Joe Biden was involved in Mexico as vice president according to the House Oversight Committee. Biden met with his son Hunter and his Mexican business associates in the White House and other DC locations in 2014 and 2015. Hunter arranged a video conference between his father and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim in 2015. Hunter wrote in a February 24, 2016, email to his Mexican contact that he, his father, and his partner Jeffrey Cooper, a Biden donor—traveling on Air Force 2—were meeting the next day with Peña.

Corruption from the US embassy and the CICIG to favor Baxter would likely match similar activities in Mexico, especially with the $644 million in contracts during Peña’s tenure. Biden taking Hunter to a meeting with Peña indicates a close relationship.

If Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit discovered actionable evidence of corruption with Biden involvement regarding the Baxter contracts, AMLO would know about it. By suppressing the story, AMLO would gain leverage over Biden. This would be consistent with the brazen disrespect AMLO has shown Biden.

US national security is at stake. US officials should investigate Biden’s relationship with Baxter