MEXICO CITY, Mexico, (LatinNews Daily) – On January 4, Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a decision to extend an offer of political asylum to the British authorities for the founder of the whistleblowers’ website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
López Obrador’s offer raised eyebrows, following immediately on the heels of the decision by the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom (UK) to reject Assange’s extradition to the US on the grounds that there would be a high probability of him committing suicide.
The offer comes at a delicate time in bilateral relations between Mexico and the US with president-elect Joe Biden poised to take office. López Obrador’s long delay in recognising Biden’s electoral victory last November antagonised leading Democrats and this latest move could further complicate ties with the incoming government.
Speaking during his morning press conference, López Obrador praised the UK High Court’s verdict, saying it was “a triumph for justice”. López Obrador said that he would instruct Mexico’s foreign ministry to perform all of the necessary formalities to present the offer of political asylum to the British authorities. López Obrador cited Mexico’s long history of offering political asylum.
Critics gave this argument short shrift. Arturo Sarukhán, a former Mexican ambassador to the US, questioned the decision to “crow about the Mexican tradition of asylum to justify [the decision] while at the same time ignoring thousands of potential Central American refugees”.
Others accused López Obrador of an eminently ideological decision in keeping with his swift offer of asylum to Bolivia’s former president, Evo Morales (2006-2019), in November 2019.
While in opposition, López Obrador congratulated Assange on the leaking of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. Biden was serving as vice president at the time. López Obrador’s decision to offer Assange asylum now is likely to cause bilateral diplomatic tensions, especially as the spokesman for the US Justice Department has already announced the US government’s decision to appeal the UK High Court’s ruling.