MEXICO CITY — Sen. Ted Cruz has accused Mexico of “undermining the rule of law,” and Mexico’s government has shot back, saying at least candidates in Mexico concede defeat when they lose elections.
The exchange came after the Texas Republican claimed earlier this week there was “deepening civil unrest in Mexico and the breakdown there of civil society, the breakdown of the rule of law.” Cruz was referring to recent killings of journalists and politicians in Mexico.
In a terse open letter to Cruz late Thursday, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States wrote that Mexico’s government likewise condemns violence and is taking steps to address it, but the reality is “very different” than Cruz depicts.
And, wrote Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, “I invite you to look at what happened in our federal elections last June. All parties, with no exception, accepted the results and kept moving forward to strengthen our democracy and freedom of expression.”
That was a clear reference to Donald Trump’s ongoing insistence that the 2020 election was stolen – a claim that found no traction in dozens of state and federal courts, and which elections officials in every state debunked – and to Cruz’s own role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Cruz led a group of 11 GOP senators who championed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and tried to block congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Lately Cruz has asserted that the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol that day was incited by the FBI, a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence.
Mexico’s President Andés Manuel López Obrador himself brushed off Cruz’s criticism Friday, saying “it is to be expected” given their political differences.
“If he praised me, I might start thinking we weren’t doing things right,” López Obrador said. “But if he says we are wrong, well that for me is something to be proud of.”
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Cruz is no stranger to controversies involving Mexico.
Cruz was criticized for taking his family to the Mexican resort of Cancun in February 2021 while millions of Texans shivered in unheated homes after severe winter weather battered his state.
📄 Open letter that Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma addressed to Senator Ted Cruz regarding his recent statements about Mexico. pic.twitter.com/1JKR3aRPa4
— Embassy of Mexico in the U.S. (@EmbamexEUA) February 18, 2022
He cut short the Cancun trip after images circulated of him waiting at a Houston airport for his flight to the resort town. Millions of Texans had lost heat and running water. The Texas Department of State Health Services issued a report Dec. 31 that put the final death toll at 246.
López Obrador hasn’t always accepted election results.
When official vote counts showed he lost the presidency in 2006 — albeit by a vastly narrower margin than did Trump in 2020 — he rallied supporters to block a major Mexico City boulevard for weeks and staged an inauguration of himself as “legitimate president.”
He accepted a clearer loss in 2012, and won the presidency by a wide margin in 2018.
Washington Bureau Chief Todd. J. Gillman contributed to this report.
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