The US revokes the visa of one of the sons of former Mexican President López Obrador

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican politician Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, one of the sons of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced Thursday night that the United States has revoked his visa, joining other figures from the ruling Morena party to whom the Donald Trump administration has applied similar measures.

Washington's decision comes less than four months after a major blow to Morena when the New York Prosecutor's Office opened a case against ten active and retired Mexican officials, including the ruling party governor of the state of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, who was accused of drug trafficking.

The visa revocation was announced by López Beltrán in a letter addressed to Trump posted on his Instagram account, in which he stated that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau “have ordered the removal of my permission to enter the United States.”

“As is evident, this decision is political in nature, or rather petty and propagandistic, in the Hitlerian style, since there is no reason to justify such an arrogant procedure,” maintained the politician, who served as organization secretary for Morena until May. He left the position to compete for the party's nomination for federal deputy for the southern state of Tabasco.

López Beltrán asserted that Rubio and Landau “do not have any evidence against me regarding any immoral or criminal act.” The measure “is nothing more than a crude and perverse scoundrel act by these officials and other hawks who, strictly speaking, are not diplomats, much less politicians,” he added.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press regarding López Beltrán's announcement.

In the letter, the politician indicated that “it causes me no problem” the limitation of entry to the United States “in these decadent and lamentable times of hatred, racism, drug addiction, family disintegration, social discontent, and sadness.”

López Beltrán asked Trump to say if he was aware of the measure and that, if not, “why don't you dismiss Rubio and Landau as well as those who are like them and are doing you harm by being full of resentment and sectarian attitudes?”

López Beltrán, who is known as Andy, was one of his father's closest collaborators before winning the 2018 elections, and he managed his private agenda and Morena's relations in the Mexican capital and the State of Mexico, according to local press.

During a good part of López Obrador's six-year term (2018-2024), the second of his four sons distanced himself from the party and dedicated himself to a chocolate company. But in September 2024, weeks before his father's term ended, he was elected organization secretary of Morena, a position he held until May.

Other Mexican politicians without visas and under prosecution. The ruling party governor of the state of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, said in May that the United States had revoked the tourist visa for her and her then-husband, Carlos Torres Torres. At that time, Ávila stated that she did not know the reasons behind the measure.

The mayor of the border city of Nogales, Juan Francisco Gim, and federal congressman Mario López Hernández, of the pro-government Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, have also acknowledged similar situations.

Added to these actions was the judicial process opened by the New York Prosecutor's Office against Rocha Moya and nine other Mexican officials, including the mayor of the city of Culiacán and a Morena senator, accused of cooperating with the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. authorities requested the preventive detention of the ten Mexicans for their extradition, but the Mexican Attorney General's Office did not heed the request and asked for more evidence to prosecute them.

Rocha Moya temporarily left his post to facilitate the investigation, while the former Secretary of Security of the Sinaloa government, Gerardo Mérida, surrendered to U.S. authorities in mid-May.

This process sparked friction between the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum and Washington.