Mexico president urges US Latinos not to give DeSantis 'even one vote'

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has urged US Latino voters not to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who launched his bid to oust President Joe Biden with a promise to "shut down" the border.

"I hope Florida's Hispanics wake up and don't give him [DeSantis] even one vote," Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference on Thursday, urging people to reject "those who persecute migrants."

"I also take this opportunity to tell Mr DeSantis, who yesterday, as you can see, I wasn't wrong that all his politicking over migrants was because he wanted to be the Republican Party's candidate."

"And also ask DeSantis, because one day, as they are very hypocritical, they might have migrants working in their service," he added.

DeSantis announced his candidacy on Wednesday at a live Twitter event, throwing down the gauntlet to Republican primary frontrunner Donald Trump.

Cordial ties with Trump

During a more than hour-long conversation hosted by the platform's owner Elon Musk, DeSantis hit out at Biden's immigration policies.

"Biden has opened the southern border and allowed massive amounts of drugs to pour into the country," the 44-year-old conservative said.

"We'll shut down the border, construct a border wall and hold the drug cartels accountable," he added.

He has made immigration a top priority and has adopted hard-right positions on undocumented immigration.

An estimated 35 million people of Mexican descent live in the United States.

Lopez Obrador, a left-wing populist, has previously called on Latino voters not to support congressional candidates who use anti-immigrant rhetoric.

But he had cordial relations with former president Donald Trump, despite the right-wing populist branding Mexican migrants as "rapists" and drug dealers during his 2016 election campaign.

He denounced the charges against Trump, calling them a "smear campaign" used to hurt his 2024 election bid.