MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018 hoping to recover Mexico’s old reputation as the diplomatic leader of Latin America, but what he’s managed to do is get several of his country’s ambassadors kicked out of countries in the region.
On Friday, López Obrador doubled down after Ecuador ordered the Mexican ambassador out of the country a day earlier, vowing to send a military plane to remove the ambassador and pledging to continue the heated rhetoric. Previously, both Peru and Bolivia had withdrawn their ambassadors in similar disputes.
López Obrador acknowledged that more countries may expel Mexican diplomats because of his criticism of conservative governments, saying that was “because our posture is uncomfortable for the oligarchies of Latin America, and those that really run things, the foreign hegemonic forces.”
That sounds like staunch leftist rhetoric from the 1960s to the early 80s, the period López Obrador is nostalgic for, when Mexico's old ruling party, the PRI, defended Cuba and helped start peace talks with leftist rebels in Central America. But the president hasn't adapted to Latin America's recent rapid swings from left to right.
“For a guy who’s really not interested in foreign policy, he’s got these pipe dreams of what Mexican foreign policy should look like,” said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. “It's nostalgia, it's the Mexico that he cut his teeth in as a politician, the PRI, it's the typical PRI foreign policy of using Latin American as a foil vis-a-vis the U.S.”
While it sounds like just another of the president's recurring, petty diplomatic disputes — López Obrador is famously uninterested in foreign policy and seldom travels or meets with other leaders — this one could escalate.
Mexico is using its embassy in Ecuador to protect an official from the former leftist government of ex-president Rafael Correa, who López Obrador really liked. The ex-official is fleeing two convictions and more investigations for corruption. Mexico upped the ante Friday by granting him asylum, and voiced fears Ecuador could raid the embassy to arrest the former official, who is accused of corruption.
“The Mexican government rejects the increased presence of Ecuadorian police forces outside the Mexican Embassy in Quito,” the Foreign Relations Department said in a statement Friday. “This clearly constitutes harassment of the embassy and is a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention."
The whole spat started after López Obrador — who is known for making off-handed comments during his marathon-like daily news briefings — made insulting comments about current Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, suggesting the conservative won office because “they created this climate of fear.”
López Obrador claimed the conservatives used the 2023 assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio, to swing the elections in Noboa's favor and block the return of Correa's leftist movement.
Coming from a Mexican leader, the comments were particularly sensitive given that Mexican drug cartels are believed to be involved with many of the Ecuadorian gangs responsible for the exploding levels of violence in the South American country. López Obrador has a policy of not confronting the cartels.
But the comments also appeared to be insulting on a personal level to many.
Amanda Villavicencio, one of the daughters of the assassinated candidate, wrote in her social media accounts Thursday that “López Obrador, you should wash your mouth out before talking about my father. Fernando Villavicencio was killed by the mafiosos he always investigated, some of whom have taken refuge at your embassy and in your country.
The situation is complicated by the fact that things haven't really been going López Obrador's way in Latin America.
The former leftist president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, is one of López Obrador's only close allies in the region, along with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the only foreigner ever invited to speak at a Mexican Independence Day celebration. Fernandez was swept out of power in last year's elections by radical libertarian and free-market proponent Javier Milei.
The other major diplomatic leader in Latin America, Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been well ahead of López Obrador on adopting a neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and condemning Israel for the war in Gaza. At one point he controversially compared Israel's actions to the Holocaust.
So López Obrador's hopes of leading a resurgent leftist tide in Latin America — waves that periodically swept the region every decade or so — have been frustrated by a region that now much more resembles a pinball machine of rapid switches, rather than a grand swing of any ideological pendulum.
“He doesn’t understand foreign policy,” Sarukhan, the former diplomat, said. “He doesn’t understand how the world has changed since the 1970s and how Mexico’s role in the world has changed.”
But in a real sense, Latin America is second to maintaining Mexico's most economically important relationship, with the United States. Latin America is a stage where Mexico can ‘look’ leftist, while kowtowing to U.S. demands on everything else.
In 2022, López Obrador famously refused to attend a U.S. summit in Los Angeles because Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela hadn't been invited.
But apart from some economic support for Cuba, including buying vaccines and importing doctors and supplying the island with oil, López Obrador's support for Cuba has remained largely rhetorical.
López Obrador pledged at the beginning of his administration that there would be no tension with the U.S. and he has largely kept that promise by reliably acceding to every U.S. request on the most important issue, migration.
Mexico has agreed to try to stop migrants before they reach the U.S. border and agreed to accept deportees who are not Mexican citizens, something that by law it doesn't have to do.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Soldiers and police stand guard outside the Mexican embassy, in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, April 5, 2024. Ecuador on Thursday declared Mexico's ambassador to Quito persona non grata due to recent statements made by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador regarding Ecuador's 2023 presidential elections. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
A car with diplomatic plates leaves the Mexican embassy, in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, April 5, 2024. Ecuador on Thursday declared Mexico's ambassador to Quito persona non grata due to recent statements made by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador regarding Ecuador's 2023 presidential elections. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
The number of people arrested in connection with protests on college campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza has now topped 2,000. The Associated Press has tallied arrests at 35 schools since the protests began at Columbia University on April 18.
Student protests have popped up at many college and university campuses over the last two weeks. Some have led to agreements with administrators to consider the protesters demands. But more frequently they have led to arrests after demonstrators refused to disperse or vandalized campus property. More than 200 of the arrests were at the University of California, Los Angeles, where police finally cleared a large encampment early Thursday.
Currently:
— Police using flash-bangs break up human chains at UCLA, making arrests and dismantling protest
— Eying campus protests, House passes bill to define criticism of Israel as antisemitic
— Timeline: How Columbia University's protest launched campus demonstrations around the U.S.
Here's the latest:
California Republican leaders blasted university administrations, saying they failed to protect Jewish students and should have prevented campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war from escalating into “lawlessness and violence.”
They now call for the firing of leaders at universities such as UCLA, where more than 200 people were arrested during a police sweep that ended early Thursday, and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where more than 30 were arrested early Tuesday. They're also pushing for a proposal that would cut pay for university administrations.
“We’ve got a whole lot of people in these universities drawing six-figure salaries and they stood by and did nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters on Thursday. “There does need to be accountability.”
Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said students found responsible for violence should be disqualified from receiving state-funded financial aid. “You don’t have the right to spray paint buildings, break windows, damage the facilities and hold other students hostage,” Jones said.
Any such GOP proposals would need the approval of Democratic lawmakers, who hold supermajorities in both chambers at the state Capitol.
At least 1,945 people have been arrested since the protests began at Columbia University in New York on April 18.
They include a college professor from Illinois who said he suffered multiple broken ribs and a broken hand Saturday during a demonstration supporting Palestinians at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bystander video shows the arrest of Steve Tamari, a history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He seemed to be moving in to take video or pictures of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly took him down.
Tamari said in a statement on Thursday that his ordeal was “a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
In New York, Stony Brook University officials said 29 people were arrested early Thursday morning, including students, faculty members and others not affiliated with the school. School administrators said the protests began peacefully but escalated to include intimidation, harassment and an encampment.
The University of Texas said Thursday that 17 people were arrested on criminal trespass charges Wednesday after demonstrators refused to comply with orders to take down an encampment built on the main walkway of the Dallas campus.
At the University of Pennsylvania and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, officers lined up to separate opposing camps of demonstrators. Both sides waved flags as they supported Israel and opposed the war in Gaza.
And bulldozers were scooping up bags of trash and dismantled tents at the University of California, Los Angeles, where crowds swelled to more than 1,000 at a pro-Palestinian encampment before police finally cleared the area early Thursday. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Alejandro Rubio says at least 132 people were arrested at UCLA. They were taken for booking at the county jails complex and campus police will determine any charges.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, about two dozen protesters sat in the middle of a roadway blocking access to one of the main gates at Kirtland Air Force Base Thursday morning, waving flags and vowing to “shut everything down” over U.S. military support for Israel's war in Gaza.
Base spokesman Rob Smith said Kirtland supports citizens’ rights to peacefully assemble and protest and that base security would monitor the situation throughout the day. Meanwhile, the gate would remain closed indefinitely and people who work on the base were advised to use other routes.
The protest comes just days after 16 people -- including five students -- were arrested at the University of New Mexico just a few miles away after they occupied the campus’ student union building and caused damage inside.
Florida’s state university chancellor has ordered campus presidents to “take any necessary steps” to prevent disruption of graduation ceremonies by protestors.
The order covers the University of Florida, Florida State University, Central Florida University, Florida A&M University and eight others. Ten arrests were made at a pro-Palestinian rally at the University of South Florida on Tuesday after police deployed tear gas.
“We must protect the integrity of our commencement ceremonies and ensure the safety of our students,” Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to presidents, adding that no ceremonies should be canceled or substantively modified. "These ceremonies are important milestones for our graduating students, and we owe it to our students to see to it that these ceremonies take place as planned. While we respect and honor the First Amendment, a commencement ceremony is not the time nor place to hold a political protest.”
President Joe Biden defended the right to peacefully protest on college campuses but said vandalism, violence, hate speech and other “chaos” has no part in a peaceful protest. “Dissent is essential for democracy,” he said at the White House Thursday morning. “But dissent must never lead to disorder.” Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up at many college campuses following the arrest of demonstrators in April at Columbia University. The Democratic president said the U.S. is neither an authoritarian nation that squashes dissent, nor a lawless country. “We are a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden said. “We are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation.” Tensions at colleges and universities have been building, with demonstrators refusing to remove encampments, administrators cancelling classes and events and police clearing some protests by force.
Police arrested pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country overnight, most notably at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday as officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators and made arrests.
Police removed barricades and began dismantling demonstrators’ fortified encampment at UCLA after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds. Police bound the hands of many protesters with zip ties behind their backs and escorted them onto buses to the county jails reception center near downtown Los Angeles. At least 132 people were arrested at UCLA, said Sgt. Alejandro Rubio, a spokesperson for the CHP Southern Division.
Officers moved in after spending hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse. A crowd of more than 1,000 had gathered in support, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside it. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled as officers encountered resistance. Video showed police pulling off helmets and goggles worn by some protesters as they were being detained.
The University of Minnesota officials announced an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday to end their encampment on the Minneapolis campus.
In exchange, representatives of the coalition of student organizations involved will get to address the university’s Board of Regents at their meeting next Friday, May 10, and the discussion will include their demands that the university divest its investments in Israel.
Interim President Jeff Ettinger announced the deal in an email to the campus community. It said nearby buildings that were closed as a precaution earlier this week would reopen at noon, and protesters agreed not to disrupt upcoming final exams or commencement ceremonies.
“While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by today’s progress,” Ettinger wrote. “It grew out of a desire among those involved to reach shared understanding. While we do not condone tactics that are outside of our policies, we appreciate student leaders’ willingness to engage in dialogue. I value the challenging and healthy conversations we’ve had.”
A few other schools also secured agreements with protesters to avoid disrupting campus events. Administrators at Brown University in Rhode Island agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand. And Northwestern University in Illinois agreed to reestablish an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.
Journalism’s highest awards are administered by Columbia University, where the Pulitzer Prize Board is praising the work of student journalists in covering campus protests around the country.
The board specifically recognized “the extraordinary real-time reporting” of student journalists at Columbia, where the nationwide campus demonstrations began on April 17.
With other media blocked from entering the campus, these students became the eyes and ears for many as New York police arrested protesters.
“In the spirit of press freedom, these students worked to document a major national news event under difficult and dangerous circumstances at risk of arrest,” the board wrote.
Police have started working to clear pro-Palestinian rights demonstrators out of a library at Portland State University in Oregon. The protesters have been occupying the Millar Library since Monday. They spraypainted graffiti on inside walls and knocked over or piled up furniture to create barricades.
University President Ann Cudd said in a written statement late Wednesday that classes would resume on Thursday, but Portland State said in a morning social media post that the campus will instead be closed due to the police activity.
Cudd said Wednesday that about 50 protesters had vacated the Millar Library after administrators promised not to seek criminal charges, expulsion or other discipline against participants who left peacefully, but others -- including non-students -- remained.
Portland Police also said early Thursday 15 vehicles at the department's training facility were damaged by arson overnight. There was no indication it was related to the demonstration's against the war in Gaza.
Former President Donald Trump commended police who cleared pro-Palestinian protesters from college campuses as he arrived in court Thursday morning for another day of his criminal hush money trial.
“It’s a shame. I’m so proud of the New York’s finest. They’re great,” Trump told reporters after police cleared demonstrators who had taken over an academic building at Columbia University. “They did a job in Columbia and likewise in Los Angeles they did a really good job at UCLA.”
Trump, in his comments, blamed the protests on “the radical left,” which he has railed against for years.
“This is a movement from the left, not from the right. The right is not your problem, despite what like law enforcement likes to say,” Trump said. “These are radical left lunatics. And they’ve got to be stopped.”
Yale police arrested four people Wednesday night after around 200 demonstrators had marched to the school president’s home and to the campus police department, Yale officials said. School officials said in a statement Thursday that protesters ignored repeated warnings that they were violating university policy on occupying parts of campus without permission. Two of those arrested were students, and the others were not, Yale said.
The protest group Occupy Yale said campus police were violent during the arrests and did not issue warnings beforehand. The group posted a video in Instagram showing officers bringing one arrestee to the ground and pinning another on a sidewalk.
“A peaceful protest,” Occupy Yale said. “Police officers seized, pushed, and brutalized people. Is this what you call keeping campus safe?”
Wednesday night’s protest at Yale came a day after a U.S. House of Representatives committee announced that the presidents of Yale, UCLA and Michigan will appear before the panel on May 23 to answer questions about campus protests.
Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock defended the decision to arrest around 90 people Wednesday night, hours after an encampment had set up protesting the war.
“Last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest. While there is bravery in that, part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences,” she said in a statement. She cited campus policies prohibiting demonstrations that interfere with Dartmouth's academic mission or increase safety risks.
“When policies like these have been ignored on other campuses, hate and violence have thrived — events, like commencement, are canceled, instruction is forced to go remote, and, worst of all, abhorrent antisemitism and Islamophobia reign,” Beilock said.
In New York, protesters were arrested overnight at Stony Brook University and the University at Buffalo, two campuses of the state university system.
A University at Buffalo spokesperson said 16 people were arrested late Wednesday after failing to comply with an order to disperse. Newsday reported that police arrested several dozen protesters at a Stony Brook encampment early Thursday and forced others to leave.
Police separate pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators on the outskirts of a protest encampment on the grounds of McGill University, in Montreal, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
Pro-Palestinian activists wave flags on the outskirts of a protest encampment on the grounds of McGill University, in Montreal, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
A pro-Israel supporter waves the Israeli flag in front of a police officer and a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Pennsylvania encampment Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Ahlam Abuawad, left, and Emily Simpson, listen to a speaker during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (James M. Patterson/Valley News via AP)
Palestinian and Israeli supporters protest on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at the University of Pennsylvania encampment in Philadelphia. (Jose F. Moreno /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
A police officer stands under a Palestinian flag after a raid on an encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A pro-Palestinian protester waves a Palestinian flag on the campus of Dartmouth College on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in Hanover, N.H. (David Adkins via AP)
Police detain a demonstrator inside a pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Police approach demonstrators inside a pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators watch police activity behind a makeshift barricade on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The word "Peace" written by a anti-war protesters is displayed on the windows at Millar Library at Portland State University, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Protesters are taken into custody as law enforcement dismantle an encampment by pro-Palestinian students at the University of Texas at Dallas' Chess Plaza on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Richardson, Texas. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
Pro-Palestianian protesters gather near a main gate at Columbia University in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, just before New York City police officers cleared the area after a building was taken over by protesters earlier in the day. The building and a tent encampment were cleared during the operation. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Demonstrators walk in an encampment on the UCLA campus after clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Police face off with pro-Palestinian demonstrators inside an encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Police enter an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Police break through a barrier set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
