Mexico’s newly elected president issued a rare rebuke of the Maduro regime in Venezuela on Tuesday after Univision’s Jorge Ramos and his team were briefly detained the night before.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was long accused during the Mexico’s 2018 presidential election of being a Chavez-Maduro sympathizer, has maintained a non-interventionist angle in Mexico’s approach towards the humanitarian crisis fueled by Venezuela’s power struggle. Before the Lima Group meeting in Bogota on Monday, comprised of a group of Latin American allies and the United States, Mexico’s foreign minister reiterated that the nation would not be engaging any kind of intervention policy in Venezuela if proposed by the group.
But Lopez Obrador’s remarks Tuesday struck a different chord. Without calling out Nicolas Maduro by name, he issued a statement denouncing attacks on journalism and expressing his belief that a free press is fundamental to any democratic society.
“We are supporters of the freedom of expression, of the respect we expect towards the exercise of a free press, both in Mexico and around the world,” Lopez Obrador said. “From Mexico, I want to express my solidarity with him [Ramos].”
Ramos, who is a U.S. based Mexican-American journalist covering Latin American news and politics, was in Venezuela’s presidential palace interviewing Maduro. The embattled Venezuelan leader ordered for Ramos and his team to be detained after Maduro was left uncomfortable with the answers being asked by the journalist, Univision News reported.
After the detentions elicited a swift rebuke from the State Department, journalists were released.
Mexico’s exterior affairs ministry issued a statement after Ramos’ detention in Caracas, taking a harder line against the Venezuelan regime, signaling a growing rift between the ministry and Lopez Obrador’s non-interventionist line.
“The Mexican government has demanded the regime in Venezuela to release the team and all the material confiscated from Ramos and his team,” the statement read. “Our nation is calling for respect of the freedom of expression and reiterates its obligation in defend of the security of Mexican citizens abroad.”
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