MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

AMLO not endorsing Lula's new elections plan

The only thing we ask is that everything is resolved in a peaceful manner, AMLO said

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced Thursday that he did not share his Brazilian colleague Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's idea that Venezuela should hold fresh elections to get out of the current crisis.

 “Let's see what the court decides,” said AMLO in reference to President Nicolás Maduro's filing before the Supreme Court. “I don't think it is prudent for us from outside, a foreign government, whoever it may be, to give our opinion on something that should be resolved by the Venezuelans,” he added in his daily morning conference.

Lula said in a radio interview that Maduro knew he owed an explanation to the world for his announced win with no documents to back it up, and that Brazil was working with Mexico and Colombia to find solutions. But AMLO said he had not spoken with the Brazilian leader after the Aug. 1 talks that also included Colombian head of state Gustavo Petro.

“We are going to wait for the electoral bodies of that country to decide, we are going to act prudently,” insisted AMLO. “From the beginning of this matter it was seen that there is a very biased attitude,” he added while recalling that the Mexican Constitution prohibits any meddling in the affairs of other countries.

“We are not in favor of either side, what we want is for the results to be made known and for the competent authority of the country, where there were elections, to decide if there is disagreement, there must be other instances, the only thing we ask is that everything is resolved in a peaceful manner, that there is no violence,” AMLO underlined.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena discussed the Venezuelan crisis with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whom she also told over the telephone that her country would wait for the “outcome of the process before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and to have transparency on the electoral results by the competent authorities,” according to a statement.