Mexican president hits back at European Parliament over deaths of journalists

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY (AA) - Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has blasted a European Parliament resolution on the killings of journalists and activists in the Central American country.

The resolution, which passed on Thursday by a vote of 607-2 with 73 abstentions, points to the violence faced by independent journalists and activists in Mexico, saying that it has become the deadliest nation for journalists outside of an official warzone.

In response to the resolution, Mexico on Thursday issued a letter alleging European legislators are guilty of "corruption, lies, and hypocrisy," and accusing the European Parliament of taking part in a reactionary coup strategy to attack Obrador's administration and "joining like sheep" the president's opposition.

"Leave behind your meddling compulsion disguised as good intentions. You are not the world's government," said the letter.

The letter also rejected the resolution’s direct criticisms of the president. Instead, citing a recent poll ranking Lopez Obrador among the most popular world leaders with a 66% approval rating, the letter said that is "more approval than any European ruler."

"Next time, inform yourselves and read the resolutions that are presented to you before casting your vote. And do not forget that we are no longer anyone's colony. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country," added the president.

According to official government data, since Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018, Mexico has reported 55 murdered journalists. So far this year, there have been seven registered homicides of members of the press.

Mexico's national Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists place government officials as the number one aggressors in violence directed at journalists and activists.

During his daily press conference on Friday, the Mexican president said that the EU lawmakers are conservative and colonialist in nature while calling their resolution "slanderous" and "ill-informed."

"Sometimes you might think that only (in Mexico) it used to be customary for legislators to vote without reading, without being informed, but now we are learning that this is happening all over the world," he told the press conference.