Former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador re-entered the international debate following the events that occurred early Saturday in Venezuela, when U.S. military forces intervened and captured President Nicolás Maduro.
In his message, he warned that an immediate victory can turn into a future defeat and emphasized that politics should not be based on imposition. López Obrador stated that historical figures such as Simón Bolívar or Abraham Lincoln would not have accepted the United States acting as a "world tyranny".
The former Mexican leader addressed U.S. President Donald Trump directly, urging him not to be swayed by complacency or by the voices that push for confrontation. In his pronouncement, López Obrador classified the intervention as an attack on the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and referred to the incident as the "kidnapping" of its president.
He also recalled one of the historical maxims of Mexican diplomacy by quoting Benito Juárez: "respect for the rights of others is peace", highlighting that although he is Mexican by pride, he also sees himself as a Latin American in the face of regional events.
In the same message, the former president expressed his "unconditional" support for President Claudia Sheinbaum, marking a line of continuity in foreign policy principles based on sovereignty, self-determination of peoples, and non-intervention.
The pronouncement closed with a phrase that quickly became central to public conversation: "For now, I'm not sending an embrace", a brief expression that seeks to reflect López Obrador's critical stance towards the actions of the government led by Donald Trump.
Quote: "I am retired from politics, but my libertarian convictions prevent me from remaining silent in the face of the arrogant attack on the sovereignty of the people of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president."
