Presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez met with Mexican migrants and the editorial boards of two major newspapers in New York City on Thursday as she commenced a six-day visit to the United States four months ahead of the June 2 elections.
During a busy day in the Big Apple, the candidate for the Strength and Heart for Mexico opposition alliance also posted a video to social media in which she declared that the allegations that organized crime provided funding for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s unsuccessful 2006 presidential campaign are “extremely serious.”
Gálvez — who trails the ruling Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum by 16 points, according to the results of a recent poll — is in the U.S. to discuss migration, organized crime and economic matters with lawmakers, business leaders, the media, migrant advocates and migrants, among others.
One of her companions on her trip to New York and Washington, D.C. is Ildefonso Guajardo, a federal deputy who served as economy minister in the 2012-18 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Gálvez meets with migrants at New York’s largest market
The candidate for the PAN-PRI-PRD opposition alliance visited the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx, the world’s largest food distribution center.
“Thousands of people work here, including many Mexicans,” Gálvez said in a video posted to social media.
She said the workers she spoke with are very concerned about insecurity in Mexico.
“Those from Puebla, those from Guerrero, tell me they’d love to return to the country,” Gálvez said.
“They send thousands of dollars to their families and I believe it’s important that we work hard as well,” she said.
“This is the 33rd state [of Mexico] and from here I send my regards to all the Mexicans who live in the United States,” Gálvez added.
In another post on the X social media platform, she wrote: “Be certain that I will always walk hand in hand and listen to our beloved migrant brothers and sisters.”
According to the National Electoral Institute, 1.44 million Mexican residents of the United States have a Mexican voter ID card. They will be able to vote electronically in the June 2 elections, but are required to register their intention to do so by February 20.
The NYT and WSJ open their doors to the presidential hopeful
Gálvez, a former senator whose profile has grown exponentially since she announced her intention to seek the presidency in the middle of last year, met with the editorial boards of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
She didn’t comment on those meetings, but posted a photo that showed her arriving at the New York Times Building on a shared bicycle.
The Times described Gálvez as “an outspoken engineer with Indigenous roots who rose from poverty to become a tech entrepreneur” in an article last September.
She is scheduled to meet with the editorial board of The Washington Post early next week.
The editorial boards of the NYT, WSJ and WaPo will no doubt offer their views on the candidate in the near future.
The day after López Obrador’s 2018 victory, the Times’ editorial board said: “Why he won is not the mystery. Killings are at record levels, corruption scandals are ceaseless and nearly half the population lives in poverty.”
Poverty has declined during López Obrador’s presidency, and his government has certainly had fewer corruption scandals than that of his predecessor.
However, his six-year term will go down as the most violent on record in terms of homicides, ensuring that public security will be a hot topic during the 2024 presidential campaign period, which officially starts March 1.
Among the remarks Gálvez made in an interview with Univisión New York on Thursday was “we need to return security to [Mexican] highways,” on which insecurity is “rampant,” according to the Confederation of Industrial Chambers.
A Strength and Heart for Mexico document obtained by the El Universal newspaper last month indicated that a Gálvez-led government would seek to put an end to the military’s involvement in public security.
“An affront to 130 million Mexicans”
Two days after three media outlets published reports that said that people working for López Obrador’s 2006 presidential campaign received between US $2 million and $4 million from drug traffickers, Gálvez asserted in a post to X that it is an “embarrassment for our country” that the nation’s leader is being called a “#NarcoPresidente.”
“Mr. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, it is extremely serious that they’re linking your political career to funding from organized crime,” she said in a video included in the post.
“This report in the international press is not just an affront to you, but also an affront to 130 million Mexicans,” Gálvez said.
“… It’s painful that it’s said in the world that Mexico has a narco-president.”
Gálvez said that López Obrador — who refuted the reports as “completely false” — has a “moral and political obligation” to defend his “personal honor and the honor of Mexico.”
“Your statements and denials in the morning press conference are not enough. Yesterday I asked you and today I insist: file a defamation complaint in United States courts. Your government has successfully sued gun manufacturers in this country. Go to the same team of lawyers to file a complaint. Clean your name and clean the name of Mexico. The respect and honor of the country is at stake,” she said.
Gálvez to discuss border security and fentanyl with U.S. lawmakers
Among the candidate’s engagements in Washington will be meetings with U.S. congressional committees, including the United States House Committee on Homeland Security.
Gálvez said her discussions with lawmakers will focus on border security and the fight against fentanyl, key challenges in the bilateral relationship.
She is also scheduled to meet with U.S. government officials and Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS). In her meeting with Almagro, Gálvez is set to stress the importance of having international observers at the June 2 elections, which will be the largest in Mexican history.
Sheinbaum visited Los Angeles in late 2023, where she met with union leaders, migrants and Mayor Karen Bass.
According to Gálvez, her main rival for the presidency has rejected invitations to meet with United States lawmakers, but Sheinbaum’s team told the Animal Político news website that is not the case.
With reports from Animal Político, Reforma and El Universal
Are we talking about the same country?
I finished a cross country tour and did not experience any issues
She has a lot of nerve throwing shade about AMLO over drug money when everyone knows Calderón was in bed with the cartels…
This article is a total joke. There were no crowds of Mexicans welcoming her at all unlike when president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador visits the U.S. AMLO is loved by the near 40 million Mexicans who live documented and undocumented in the united states. Mexican people are well aware that she is the candidate of the corrupt PAN-PRI-PRD parties that ruled Mexico for more than three decades full of corruption that devasted the country. Homicides are actually down 20% since he took office, however, conventional Mexican media run by the oligarchs refuse to recognize this. Claudia Sheinbaum as reported by national polls has over an 46% advantage over the PAN-PRI-PRD candidate who has a mere 21%. She represents the minority of Mexicans who are quite sore after losing their priviledges and economic entitlements due to austerity reforms in the currnent AMLO government. The rich now have to pay taxes, have to stop stealing from the government, have to stop outsourcing practices in business, pay higher wages to workers and can’t siphon money from the government as before. Mexico will have their first female president, Clauida Sheinbaum and the 4th transformation will continue. Mexico is now the 10th economic world power and will continue to climb upwards in the next six years.
Hi Diego,
We reported on the reduction in homicides during López Obrador’s six-year term last month.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/homicide-rate-in-mexico-reaches-lowest-point-since-2016/
It’s true that homicides have declined about 20% since AMLO took office, but also true that this sexenio has been the most violent on record.
According to the most recent El Financiero poll, Sheinbaum has a 16-point lead over Gálvez – 48 to 32.
Peter Davies
Just saw online that she was received by over 200 Mexicans chanting, ” We don’t want you here, you are the party of narcos, we don’t want corrupt politicians here”. Also chanted ”
Es un honor estar con Obrador”. Of course this won’t be broadcasted in conventional news media.
She actually had to be covered and escorted away from her rally…
Well that’s interesting Diego. I never saw that anywhere on the news, it’s like it is in the USA and Canada, media only reports half the news and with a bias tone on top of that,,
Awwww, look at her riding along on her homophobic bicycle.
AMLO’s brother was video taped accepting hundreds of thousands of pesos in plain brown paper bags. That’s a fact. AMLO has been a PRI achichinqle his entire life. He never has made money on his own, it hasalways been on a party or government payroll. He has never signed a pay check.
Given all that, how could he have financed a national campaign in 2006? He couldn’t. The DEA thoroughly investigated the cash involved. Again, how could AMLO finance a national campaign on his own or by a political party (the PRD) finance a national campaign?