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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Saturday that he would not congratulate a winner of the US presidential election until legal challenges are concluded, in an apparent attempt to avoid friction with Washington during the transition.
Democrat Joe Biden won the election Saturday after a victory in the battlefield state of Pennsylvania placed him above the electoral college’s threshold of 270 votes.
Mexico is the main trading partner of the United States, with more than $ 600 billion of annual two-way trade, and the bilateral relationship with its northern neighbor is by far the most important for Mexico.
“Regarding the elections in the United States, we are going to wait until all the legal issues are resolved,” López Obrador, commonly known as Amlo, said at a press conference.
“I cannot congratulate one candidate or another. I want to wait until the electoral process is over ”.
Republican President Donald Trump has filed a number of lawsuits to challenge the results, but election officials in states across the country say there has been no evidence of significant fraud and legal experts say Trump’s efforts are unlikely be successful.
The Mexican president linked his caution to his own accusations of fraud in two presidential elections he contested, in 2006 and 2012, before winning his third candidacy in 2018.
His reluctance to comment on the results of the United States contrasts with the congratulations offered to the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, last year, despite the opposition’s claims of fraud in that candidacy for re-election.
Mexican officials said the decision was born out of a desire to avoid provoking Trump while he remained in the White House.
“Bolivia does not have a 3,000-kilometer border with Mexico,” an official said of the apparent contradiction. “It is important to have a couple of months of peace and good neighborly relations.”
In his comments, Amlo said he had a good relationship with both Trump and former Vice President Biden, whom he said he had known for a decade.
He has had to maintain a fine line with Trump, whose term is scheduled to end on January 20. A Biden presidency could reestablish ties that have faded since Trump made his first White House bid, accusing Mexican migrants of rapists and gun traffickers and vowing to keep them out with a border wall.
Under Trump, Mexico has had to navigate abrupt demands to stop illegal migration or face trade tariffs.
Yet by acceding to Trump’s immigration dictates, Amlo has forged an uneasy relationship of some mutual convenience, in which Washington has mostly avoided criticizing his economic policies.
“President Trump has been very respectful to us,” he said. “And we’re grateful he didn’t meddle.”
