Valentin Ramirez began working at a maquila at age 16 and joined his first worker protest when that US-owned business shut down without letting the workers know or paying the wages owed. Jobless, he made his way to the US to join a sister. Ramirez, always an activist, currently serves as the spokesperson for Cocio Guelaguetza San Diego, a cultural coalition that brings together Oaxacan indigenous communities.

Progressives around the world felt jubilant when Biden beat Trump, but Andrés Manuel López Obrador kept strangely silent. Why?

Valentin Ramirez: México has a policy toward foreign countries — the Estrada Doctrine — that doesn’t allow it to put its nose into the affairs of other nations. It’s a way of leading by example. So many times other countries have meddled with México’s own elections. México doesn’t want to do the same and refuses to work for or endorse any candidate or party abroad. This policy shows respect and a desire for peace. Recently, for example, México granted asylum to Evo Morales, the leftist Brazilian leader, when he was deposed by a right-wing coup. But México also granted asylum to a conservative politician who opposed the leftist Venezuelan President Maduro, Hugo Chavez’ successor.

AMLO also has to be especially careful with his relationship to the US. With Trump, he played to his ego, hoping to let as few bees out of the nest as possible. And Trump still has two months to go. AMLO still has to be careful not to get stung.

But didn’t AMLO know that his silence might be seen as support for Trump?

Whether to say “congratulations” is not the most important thing to AMLO. When I was a kid, I left my rural village at 12 to go to school in the city. I had no money and was hungry most of the time. The money my dad could afford to send me could only last two days out of the week. Now, under AMLO, 70 percent of the people are getting benefits from the Mexican government. Kids don’t have to go through what I went through. AMLO is focusing on his own people, and that’s why 80 percent of the people support him. His relationship with the US does not affect that support at home.

Many are surprised that any Mexican-American would vote for Trump! Does their vote mean they don’t support AMLO?

Eighty percent of Mexican-Americans voted Democrat. But the Trump campaign did a good job of confusing the people. For one thing, they painted Biden as a socialist. My grandfather, a small farmer, used to say, “Be careful, the next President might be a socialist. I don’t want to give my cow to the government.” He had heard things about Cuba that scared him. But global capitalism and food imports later undercut local farmers — and that forced my grandfather to sell his cows and his farm!

AMLO remains very popular among Mexican-Americans. For one reason: Because of the new benefits their parents are receiving, Mexicans in the US do not need to send as much money home. The Trump campaign exploited AMLO’s popularity. Trump made it look like AMLO endorsed him. His campaign used photos of the two of them side by side with the caption, “The two best world leaders!”

What will test US/Mexico relations as Biden takes office?

Oil! AMLO has been quietly stopping the privatization of the oil industry begun by former President Pena Nieto — a privatization that has us seeing US Shell and British BP stations instead of the Mexican Pemex — and Trump has not been paying attention. But both Republican and Democratic officials in Texas, led by US senator Ted Cruz, have written a letter of protest charging that AMLO, by giving preference to state-owned oil companies, is threatening US energy investments in Mexico and violating the new NAFTA. No one believes that a Democrat in the White House means that AMLO will be able to do what’s best for México.