Leftist Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,аa potential Hugo Chavez who may be ruling Mexico by 2007, is now accused by a Mexican newspaper of allowing city funds to bankroll weapons purchases for Mexican Marxist guerrillas. If that's true, it's a worrisome portent of the kind of president AMLO may be.
а
The Mexican newspaper says that the mayor's office's funds went through Havana, Cuba, to Caracas, Venezuela, with the purchase of AK—47s facilitated by the Venezuelan government. El Universal of Mexico reportedаthe story in a column and Miguel Octavio in Venezuela has a short English translation of the item here.аа
а
The El Universal article says that Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) didn't know about it, butаfor aаchief executive, that excuse isn't terribly comforting. You'd never catch AMLO's leading and very vocal opponent, Claudio X. Gonzalez,а a distinguished CEO, running his companies that way. And the reality is, if funds can be diverted from the mayor's office to Marxist thugs once, it's a certainty it will happen again, along with probably worse diversions than that. Accountability has never been AMLO's strong suit.а
а
It's important to mention that El Universal is a Mexican newspaper with very close ties to the current Mexican government under President Vicente Fox. They are fighting AMLO's potential candidacy for the presidency, which will be decided at the end of 2006. They have every motive in the world to smear him.

AMLO repeatedly denies that he will be another Hugo Chavez, and did so over the weekend, which tells us that the Hugo Chavez comparison is utter poison to Mexican voters. That said, El Universal does have good sources, and has reported reliable information from the establishment point of view in the past. Still, they have motive to paint AMLO as badly as they can in the heat of the campaign. Keep your antennae up on this detail.

But if this accusation proves true, it's extremely ominous for the U.S., because Hugo Chavez's efforts to destabilize the hemisphere are already well known. He's been active in Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Colombia, with credible accusations that he is meddling through local leftist puppets to take—over these mostly shaky democracies. Chavez also has talked about an oil alliance with Mexico to cut off America's oil supply. There is no question that Mexico is Chavez's ultimate prize, and if he gets his hands on this country, through collusion with AMLO, there are some very grim times coming for the U.S. Nothing good will come of it.