Mexico’s president slams the nomination of Ukrainian president Zelenski for the Nobel Peace Prize

Staying to true form in his disdain for Ukraine, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López criticized the members of the European Parliament who nominated his Ukrainian counterpart, President Volodímir Zelensky, for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

During the morning press conference on October 5, the Mexican president affirmed that there are other people who deserve the highest world peace award and not one of the presidents of the countries that participate in the war that is taking place in Europe.

“With all due respect, the European Parliament proposing the President of Ukraine as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, regardless of whether it moves forward or not, how is one of the actors in the war going to receive the Nobel Peace Prize? ”, questioned AMLO in the National Palace.

“Aren’t there others who fight for peace? Why not Pope Francis? The UN director, and there must be many more”, he added.

The president continued to question the support of dozens of European politicians, including current and former MEPs, who since last March have asked the Norwegian Nobel Committee to consider Zelensky and the people of Ukraine for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded this Friday, October 7.

AMLO’s government has had friction with Ukraine for rejecting sanctions against Russia and for proposing a world peace truce at the UN General Assembly last month that Ukrainian officials, such as presidential adviser Myjailo Podolyak, considered as a plan that was meant to buy time for Moscow with a 5-year freeze on the war.

Ukraine said Mexico’s plan is a ‘Russian plan’

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky and lead negotiator in peace talks, reacted to the plan proposed by the President of Mexico to stop the war in Ukraine that was presented on September 16.

“The ‘peacemakers’ who use the war as a theme for their own public relations cause only surprise. @lopezobrador_ is your plan to keep millions under occupation, increase the number of mass burials and give Russia time to renew reserves before the next offensive? So their ‘plan’ is a Russian plan,” the Ukrainian official said on his Twitter account.

Until then, the Ukrainian government had not issued an official position on the proposal of the president of Mexico.

“It is about seeking consistency, an agreement to stop the war in Ukraine and achieve a truce of at least five years, in favor of peace among all nations,” said López Obrador during his speech on September 16 during Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations.

Mexico’s President has a history of disdain for Ukraine and support for Russia

In March, less than a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mexico’s Senate created the ‘Russian Friendship Committee” with the purpose of spreading Russian propaganda at the highest levels of the Mexican government.

Congressman in Mexico, Armando Contreras Castillo said: “We are always ready to do everything we can to increase the friendship, relations, and cooperation between Mexico and Russia in every aspect of the world and life.”

“We reaffirm our moral and political support for the difficult decision that forced the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin to engage in the legitimate defense of his people and, seeking to avoid a larger military conflict and preserve world peace, militarily intervene in Ukrainian territory to weaken the neo-Nazi, coup-lead forces,” the Morena Youth of Mexico State group wrote in the letter, young representatives of the current president’s political party in Mexico.

Later in March, Mexico’s president announced that the country is ‘pacifist’ and therefore would not send weapons in support of Ukraine and it would not participate in sanctions against Russia.

“We are not going to take any economic retaliation because we want to maintain good relations,” the president announced on March 1, 2022.

In April, Mexico sustained from a UN vote to have Russia removed from the UN Human Rights Council in response to evidence of war crimes and violations of human rights that the council is designed to uphold.

European politicians ask for the Nobel Peace Prize for Zelensky

In March 2022, a group of politicians from several European countries requested, through an open letter, the Nobel Peace Prize for the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelensky, and for the Ukrainian people.

The signatories of the open letter called on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to reopen the nomination period for this year’s prize, which closed on January 31, due to “unprecedented historical events” related to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“The world is shocked by the images of the war coming from Ukraine. Millions of families now live in fear, their homes and lives threatened by bombing and an invading army. We are witnessing the courage of the people of Ukraine in the face of this war declared by Russia ”, states the letter.

The signatories are legislators from nations such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia.

They include former Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and former Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, as well as several MEPs.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize nominees include Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, Belarusian oppositionist Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, Pope Francis, the Arctic Council, and the Burmese civil disobedience movement, among others.