“It's not time to set up a friendship group with Russia”: Citizens' Movement in Saint Lazarus

As a result of the legislative work of the Chamber of Deputies regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) of this body decided to postpone the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group indefinitely.

Ignacio Mier, coordinator of the Morena National Regeneration Movement (Morena) bench in the Lower House, agreed that out of prudence in the face of the war incidents taking place in the country of Eastern Europe, the installation of this work table must wait.

On the other side of the coin, Rubén Moreira, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) bench and president of Jucopo, did not support this decision and mentioned, in his own capacity, that the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group should not deal with diplomatic tasks.

In detail, he defined that friendship groups are the position of Saint Lazarus: “of those who feel friends with those countries”. In that regard, he recalled that the federal legislature must give them the space to install themselves, “they are institutional issues and that was the situation.”

However, there were more radical positions on the contact established with Russia, such as the Citizen Movement (MC), whose coordinator in Saint Lazarus established a definite point of non-coexistence with the representation of the country that invaded Ukraine.

Jorge Álvarez Máynez, coordinator of the orange bench in the Chamber of Deputies, said that “it is incredible that, at the moment, the official representation of the Ukrainian government in Mexico is being accused of being 'fascist' in Jucopo”.

It should be recalled that the federal administration has already condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine on two occasions in the face of the highest international responsibility. Both were delivered by Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations (UN). The first was before the UN Security Council and the second was before the plenary session.

On their own, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke out similarly on social media, as they urged the construction of peace in Ukraine and for Russia to stop hostilities against its neighbor.

Regarding MC's position, which is the strongest against Russia, it is worth noting the work of Solomon Chertorivsky, who has mobilized with both the Ukrainian ambassador to Mexico and the Mexican ambassador to Ukraine. In this perspective, both women have played a fundamental role in being able to evacuate Mexicans from the invaded country.

Chertorivski Woldenberg led a delegation that met on March 10 with Oksana Dramarétska, Ukrainian ambassador to Mexico, to discuss democracy and international peace. In this regard, the former Secretary of Health said that this was done to know what is happening in that nation, to understand its situation, to propose aid actions and that the legislature can speak out for the defense of democracy and international peace.

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