1. *BREAKING* #Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the #UnitedStates asking it to clarify its financing of the political opposition by means of donations from @USAID and @NEDemocracy to the organization "Mexicanos contra la Corrupción y la impunidad."

2. At #AMLO's morning press conference, he laid out a graphic detailing some $36,344,384 pesos ($1.8 million US) in donations since 2018.

jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/05/…
3. The note was prompted by the following investigation by the magazine @contralinea, whose correspondent raised the subject at yesterday's press conference.

contralinea.com.mx/gobierno-de-eu…
4. According to the journalist @manuelhborbolla, who has also investigated the matter, #USAID has donated $2.25 million dollars to the organization, and #NED, a further $90,000.

5. MCCI is not directly a political org- that'd be too obvious. Instead, it is a non-profit that purports to fight corruption. As I've written about in detail, however (jacobinmag.com/2021/01/midter…) its leader, Claudio X. González, is organizing & financing the opposition to #MORENA.
6. González and Co. are also behind the lawfare strategy that has sought to gum up AMLO's entire agenda in the courts, including his energy reforms, the labeling law for processed foods, the cancellation of the Texcoco airport, and more (see: jacobinmag.com/2021/04/mexica…)
7. With a convenient indirectness, the US is financing an organization whose leader is actively opposing the government in ways that benefit the US itself. This is a violation of the Mexican Constitution and amounts to open interference in the politics of a sovereign nation.
8. Unfortunately, this has been and continues to be standard operating procedure for the US - by means of organizations such as USAID and NED - throughout the region. /END

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Kurt Hackbarth 🌹

Kurt Hackbarth 🌹 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @KurtHackbarth

30 Apr
1. At the beginning of 2021, #AMLO signed an executive order to ban GM corn and the toxic chemical #glyphosate over three years.

Now, a judge has provided #Bayer with a stay against the order.

The Mexican judiciary's war against AMLO's agenda continues.

reuters.com/business/energ…
2. The ban came as a surprise to the #US and #BigAg, which thought their lobbying efforts had been sufficient to quash any such measure. In fact...

iatp.org/blog/202102/me…
3. US agencies & #Monsanto did a full-court press to stop Mexico from taking action. Leaked #USTR emails complain of “vocal anti-biotechnology activists” in the administration, and that Mexico’s health agency (Cofepris) is “becoming a big-time problem”.

theguardian.com/business/2021/…
Read 6 tweets
23 Apr
1.) Yesterday, former Mexican president @FelipeCalderon came out complaining that he's being "persecuted."

Today it became clear why: Calderón has been implicated in the massive diversion of public funds to develop Mexico's prison-industrial complex.
2.) Through his then-Security Secretary Genaro García Luna -currently on trial in the US for drug trafficking-, the Calderón administration allegedly diverted some $300 billion pesos ($15 billion US today) into no-bid crony contracts for private prisons.

jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/04/…
3.) As I explained here, these long-term, sweetheart contracts (some possessed today by Black Rock) required the government to pay the companies as if they were at full capacity, regardless of whether a single person was in them.

Read 8 tweets
22 Apr
1. The Mexican Congress has overwhelmingly approved #AMLO's Anti-#Outsourcing law, which bans the practice for permanent or essential functions of a business or organization.

The law largely rolls back a 2012 labor 'reform' which opened the door to it.
jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/04/…
2. In addition to fueling a crisis of precarious work in an economy already massively dependent on "informal," no-benefits employment, the outsourcing boom of the last decade has cost the Mexican treasury an estimated $500 billion ($25 billion US) a year.

infobae.com/america/mexico…
3. Beyond the labor abuses, it also became an open door to crime. The so-called "King of Outsourcing," Raúl Beyruti, allegedly set up a network of 92 outsourcing shell companies to defraud the government.

In February, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

proceso.com.mx/nacional/justi…
Read 5 tweets
10 Apr
In recent articles (e.g. jacobinmag.com/2020/08/pena-n…), I have reported on how the energy privatization reforms of Enrique Peña Nieto were passed by bribing members of Congress.

Now, in a major development, 3 ex-senators from the conservative PAN party have been directly implicated.
They are Jorge Luis Lavalle, Roberto Gil Zuarth and Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca. Lavalle was arrested on Friday; as a sitting governor, Cabeza de Vaca has immunity from prosecuction, which they were already seeking to strip for other crimes.
jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/04/…
Also under the gun - and reportedly on deck for charges - are 3 other ex-legislators: Salvador Vega Casillas, Ernesto Cordero and the PAN's 2018 presidential candidate, Ricardo Anaya, then Speaker of the House.

jornada.com.mx/2021/04/10/pol…
Read 6 tweets
28 Jan
In October, I wrote in @jacobinmag about the parasitical nature of private banking in #Mexico (article here: jacobinmag.com/2020/10/privat…).

Now, a group of foreign banks has just been found guilty of price fixing.

aristeguinoticias.com/2501/dinero-y-…
According to an investigation by the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), the banks colluded to fix the prices of governmental bond emissions, using chat rooms to decide amongst themselves whether or not to buy or sell.

lexlatin.com/noticias/cofec…
Thus, the boys helped themselves while screwing over those buying the bonds in the secondary market.

Unfortunately, the COFECE decided to give them nothing more than a slap-on-the-wrist $1.5 million fine, only 4% of what they could have been charged.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 5 tweets
12 Dec 19
Feeling so bad for Jeremy Corbyn right now. An honest, decent man, lifelong anti-racist campaigner and fighter for justice around the world, denigrated, demeaned and slandered to the point of being reduced to practically a subhuman caricature. This is on you, media.
This is someone who fought apartheid when Thatcher was calling the ANC terrorists, who opposed Latin American dictatorships when Maggie was playing footsie with Pinochet, defended the rights of Palestinians, called out Saudia Arabia for Yemen, called a coup a coup in Bolivia.
This man, this lifelong campaigner for justice, could not just be opposed. He had to be, from the moment he raised his head as leader of the Labour Party, destroyed, debased, dehumanized. We talk in the abstract of a class system - this is how it perpetuates itself in practice.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(