Biden's Ukrainian Connection Raises the Stakes in US Presidential Race

Hunter Biden, the man of the hour in US politics stayed in Mexico twice in 2013-14. He came to Mexico to address health issues at an exclusive facility that would later lead to the US airing his affairs in the tabloids. During both stays, he met with politicians and Mexican business leaders.

At the time, reports from this exclusive group were that Hunter's health had improved in Mexico and that following his hospitalization he had taken on an important position at European gas firm Burisma. This Ukrainian company paid him US50,000 per month and is the very same that has shot both the Biden family and the White House into turmoil and led to US House Democrats launching an impeachment process.

The US State Department and the Mexican Embassy in Washington are now aswarm with news and analyses regarding the events, but one piece of information, in particular, has been underscored: Joe Biden's bid for the Democratic nomination appears to be over. The centrist option for the opposition party lost ground to the two left-of-center alternatives Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Oddly enough, they are Donald Trump's hoped-for rivals.

The US president is determined to push the dichotomy between his government and the "socialism" forwarded by Warren and Sanders as his reelection campaign, as was evident in his last speech in Texas. Sanders, an unavoidable figure in politics is a complication in terms of the polarization that is causing unrest in the White House.

Biden in Ukraine is a well-known story in President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's government because Rudolph Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer, shared this information with Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at some point during the 2018 transition. Mike Pompeo also offered his opinion when he made incursions into the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to determine the Southern Border Plan. It seems as though at some point Burisma showed interest in doing business in Mexico - a move that would not go over well in Trump's circle.

The story has an additional twist because at the same time Hunter Biden signed on with Burisma, Joseph Cofer entered stage right as an advisor - a former CIA employee now in line to deal with the ups and downs of Eastern European security matters.

As the story goes, Biden, in his role as vice-president to Barack Obama did his best to topple pro-Russian president Víktor Yanukóvich but his efforts were in vain and translated into neither Yanukóvich nor his coterie being imprisoned. In fact, inside Yanukóvich's inner circle is the owner of gas company Burisma, where Hunter Biden worked up until April of this year. And at the end of last year, Giuliani proceeded to have the ex-vice president's son investigated by authorities in Kyiv.

This whole spectacle will be exploited by the most disruptive members of the Democratic Party in order to remove vice president Biden from the playing field. At the moment, Biden has not managed to explain anything. His only comment so far is that he supports Trump's impeachment.

For Morena's (AMLO's National Regeneration Movement party) government, Sanders and Warren's dominance is not encouraging news. They both have strong objections to the USMCA, are critical of Mexico's human rights policies and also have complicated views on anti-drug trafficking policies on the Mexican side of the border. Meanwhile, Trump will most likely be campaigning under the threat of impeachment.