Lopez Obrador is threatening Mexico’s democracy. It’s time for Biden to break his silence | Opinion

Now that the U.S. midterm elections are over and — once the final results are in — President Biden will face fewer electoral pressures, it’s time for the U.S. government to break its silence about a dangerous threat to democracy in Mexico.

Mexico’s populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has announced plans to dismantle his country’s highly respected National Electoral Institute, or INE. The independent electoral-monitoring agency was key to Mexico’s transition to democracy in 2000 after more than seven decades of one-party rule, and has remained a guarantor of free and fair elections ever since.

But now, Lopez Obrador’s proposed electoral reform would replace the INE by a much-smaller and weaker institution, which would be much easier for his government to control.

Lopez Obrador claims he wants to downsize the INE to cut government waste, saying his plan is part of a wider political reform that would also cut funds for political parties and eliminate 200 of the 500 seats in the lower house of Congress.

But critics counter that the INE’s $706 million annual budget is a small price to pay for maintaining Mexico’s democracy. Compared to the gigantic expenditures for some of the president’s questionable public-works projects, the INE is small change.

Lopez Obrador is building, among other things, the $18 billion Dos Bocas oil refinery, at a time when clean energies are increasingly likely to replace oil, and as Saudi Arabia and other major oil-rich nations are trying to move away from fossil fuels. Opposition parties planned a huge protest march in support of the INE on Sunday in Mexico City.

Mexico’s Congress, controlled by the president’s Morena party, is scheduled to debate Lopez Obrador’s electoral reform in early December. That’s when most Mexicans will be distracted watching the soccer World Cup in Qatar.

The Biden administration has abstained from publicly criticizing Lopez Obrador’s offensive against the INE. Asked for a comment on the plan to downsize the Mexican electoral agency, a State Department official told me, “We have no comment at this time.”

Washington insiders tell me that the White House doesn’t want to antagonize the Mexican president at a time when it is asking him to help control migrants at the border, reduce the flow of fentanyl and abide by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement.

Fears of an increase in illegal immigration before the midterm elections may also have played a role in the Biden administration’s reluctance to criticize Lopez Obrador, says Andrew Rudman, director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington D.C.-based Wilson Center think tank.

“They may have been concerned that if you push Lopez Obrador too hard on other issues, he may say, ‘I’m not going to cooperate on migration,’” Rudman told me. “That would have been a problem for the Biden administration politically.”

However, “The U.S. should not hesitate to defend long-held democratic values, regardless of where they may be under attack,” Rudman said.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, agrees that the Biden administration should voice its concern over Lopez Obrador’s efforts to dismantle the INE.

“We cannot afford to ignore the steady erosion of Mexico’s democracy and the rule of law under President Lopez Obrador,” Menendez told me in an emailed response to a query. “I fully expect the Biden administration to ramp up efforts to support the protection of Mexico’s democratic actors and institutions.”

He added, “History has proven that democratic societies are more peaceful, their people are more successful and safer, and that it is in our national interest to champion these values.”

Of course, if Biden speaks out about the threat to democracy in Mexico, Lopez Obrador would immediately accuse the United States of interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.

But that shouldn’t keep any U.S. official awake at night, because Lopez Obrador himself constantly meddles in other countries’ affairs.

The Mexican president recently endorsed leftist presidential candidates in Brazil, Chile and Bolivia, and he threatened to campaign to tear down the Statue of Liberty if the United States convicts Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Biden, unlike his predecessor, has promised to make the defense of democracy a centerpiece of his foreign policy. With the midterms behind him, he should act on his promise and denounce one of the biggest threats to the rule of law in the hemisphere, right on this country’s doorstep.

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