America is anti-democratic. It stifles freedom of expression, and is attempting to deny Donald Trump another shot at the presidency. According to the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is honing attacks on his northern neighbor as troubles grow at home, those are some of the problems ailing America.  

Mr. Lopez Obrador, attempting to divert attention from his own assaults on Mexico’s democratic institutions, is using his daily press conferences to harangue America. Nevermind the fentanyl crisis at the border, the high murder rate of journalists, and the dismantling of democratic institutions: AMLO, as he is known, insists that Mexico is “safer” than America.

On Tuesday, Mr. Lopez Obrador latched on to a theory being promoted by journalist Seymour Hersh. Washington is talking about cartel violence, AMLO said, while President Biden “sabotaged” the Russia-Europe Nord Stream pipeline. Meanwhile, he added, in America “several cartels” are allowed to “freely distribute fentanyl” to young people. 

“What are you doing for young people so they don’t consume fentanyl?” Mr. Lopez Obrador said. Mexican cartels traffic the synthetic opioid that causes around 70,000 overdose deaths annually, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Mr. Lopez Obrador is also disillusioned with American democracy. “If you talk about freedom of expression, why do you have Julian Assange in jail?” he said, while faulting the investigation of  President Trump over alleged hush payments to Stormy Daniels. “If he is detained, everybody will know it’s so he doesn’t appear on the electoral ballot,” AMLO said, calling it “completely anti-democratic.”

The Mexican president’s constant attention to perceived American problems may derive from what is known in psychology as projection. Just as in other Latin American countries, Mexican institutions are facing “growing threats,” the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean programs at the National Democratic Institute, Deborah Ullmer, says: corruption, organized crime, social and political conflict, and disinformation.    

“Mexican civil society is concerned about the onslaught of AMLO’s discourse against several autonomous constitutional bodies,” Ms. Ullmer says. She adds that Mr. Lopez Obrador consistently questions the legitimacy of the media when “human rights defenders and journalists suffer a high rate of violence” in Mexico. 

Last month, Mr. Lopez Obrador presented a bill to reduce the size of Mexico’s independent electoral system. Mexicans fear that changes to the National Electoral Institute will endanger next year’s free and secure elections. “The reform rolls back 30 years of Mexico’s democratic advances,” Ms. Ullmer said.

Yet, Mr. Lopez Obrador continues to bash anyone who defies its authority, including the American government. 

The Mexico chapter of the state department’s annual global human rights report, issued this week, documented significant human rights violations, including unlawful killings by police, forced disappearance by government agents, torture or degrading treatment by security forces, restrictions on free expression and the press, and serious acts of government corruption.

“They’re lying,” Mr. Lopez Obrador said when asked about the report in his morning press conference. “America believes it’s the government of the world.”

AMLO refuses to acknowledge that fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico, despite American reports showing that most of the illegal substance is produced in clandestine labs in Mexico with Chinese precursor chemicals. Americans are to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis, he added, because they don’t hug their children enough.

“There is a lot of disintegration of families, there is a lot of individualism, there is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces,” Mr. Lopez Obrador said Friday.

Despite AMLO’s comments, America’s relationship with Mexico is “vital” and “important,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Tuesday. “We’re going to continue to grow that relationship,” but “I am certainly going to speak out and correct the record on some of the things that have just been said.”