“He can be considered interventionist”: the US embassy explained why Mexico did not recognize Joe Biden as president

With an official statement from Embassy of Mexico in the United States, led by Martha Bárcena, Mexican authorities explained the reason for their decision that they have not yet recognized Joe Biden’s triumph in the US presidential elections.

In that statement it was stated that the Democratic candidate is awaiting congratulations “Based on the principles of foreign policy enshrined in our Constitution, in particular the principle of non-intervention […] In this context, we maintain the utmost respect for the institutions, laws and procedures of each country regarding its internal affairs […] Mexico believes that the release of opinions or positions on internal processes can be considered interventionist ”.

It was also stated that congratulations will be postponed until North American institutions legally and officially declare a winner of the electoral contest and “it emphasizes respect for the American political system, its institutions and the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as President Donald Trump and to the presumed president-elect Joseph Biden ”.

On Saturday, the victory of Joe Biden Y Kamala Harris in the state of Pennsylvania it means that, arithmetically, the Democratic candidate has enough voters in the Electoral Collegel (more than 270 voters) to be declared the winner of the elections for the presidency of the United States. However, although the numbers are in favor of the Democratic duo and the number of remaining votes cannot change the election results, the counting of the votes is not finished.

Georgia’s electoral authorities have reported that Biden’s margin of victory is so small that votes will be counted; other states such as Alaska, Arizona and North Carolina have to count the votes received in the mail. A winner of the electoral competition has not been officially declared.

The reason why the official results of these elections took much longer than the past electoral processes is related to COVID-19. Since emergency measures against the virus require a strict healthy distance, an invisible number of voters chose a candidate by post.

The United States, unlike the overwhelming majority of modern democracies, lacks electoral authority to set the rules at the national level. Therefore, each state of the North American federation establishes the details of its own electoral regulations. For this reason, some states continue to receive electoral votes, while the overwhelming majority have already finished counting their votes.

While this is happening, a team of lawyers hired from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign are pursuing a series of lawsuits in the most competitive states to disqualify potentially democratic votes. While the chances of these legal remedies having substantial consequences on the election outcome are remote, there are no absolute certainties.

The executive representatives of the following countries have already congratulated Joe Biden: Angela Merkel (Germany), Erdogan (Turkey), Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela), Boris Johnson (UK), Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Lenin Moreno (Ecuador), Narendra Modi (India), Iván Duque (Colombia) , Emmanuel Macron (France), among others.

Numerous politicians, opinion leaders, journalists and intellectuals, in the role of León Krauze, Joaquín Castro, Agustín Basave, Arturo Sarukhán, Fernando Belaunzarán, Guadalupe Acosta, have criticized the Mexican president’s reluctance to congratulate, arguing that it can be interpreted as a show of hostility towards the future Democrat presidency.

The postponement of congratulations was not met unilaterally by harsh criticism. Other relevant figures of public opinion such as Renata Turrent and Genaro Lozano They described this measure as an act of prudence in the face of a process that does not yet have an institutional end.

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