López Obrador asks the US president to end the “disdain” towards Latin America
The president of United States, Joe Biden assured this Monday that the immigration crisis at the border “is already well underway”, thanks to the collaboration of the Mexican Government. This was stated by the US president at the start a meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the National Palace of Mexico, accompanied by several members of their cabinets. Biden is in the Mexican capital for the North American Leaders Summit. It is his first visit to a Latin American country since he came to the White House two years ago. “We will talk about how we can address irregular immigration, which I think is already very well underway,” Biden said, sitting at a table across from López Obrador.
The Democratic leader also put on the table the need to work together to stop “the plague of fentanyl”, a synthetic drug manufactured in Mexico that is behind a good part of the overdose deaths in the United States. And, on trade, he proposed “strengthening supply chains” so that the North American region can be more competitive. “Mexico is a true partner and when we work together and with mutual respect, there is nothing we cannot do,” Biden declared.
In the international arena, Biden urged López Obrador to continue supporting democracy in the Americas, and recalled that the United States is the country that provides “the most foreign assistance” in the world. The US president considered that the world is experiencing a unique “turning point” since World War II, since what is agreed now will mark the world “in the coming decades.”
The meeting occurs after the White House announced a new immigration program to stop the arrival of people at its southern border. The United States will offer 30,000 humanitarian permits for Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians, but it will expressly return to Mexico all those migrants who cross the border irregularly.
Likewise, both presidents see each other after the recent arrest in Mexico of Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán, whom the United States wants to extradite for drug trafficking.
The US delegation is made up of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken; Attorney General Merrick Garland; the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo; the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas; and the presidential adviser for Climate, John Kerry, among others. On the Mexican side are the foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard; the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López; Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval; Marina’s, Rafael Ohjeda; Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez; that of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O; the Environment, María Luisa Albores and the Economy, Raquel Buenrrostro.
The end of “disdain”
For his part, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked Biden to end the “disdain” towards Latin American countries and move towards the economic integration of the continent. “It is time to put an end to this forgetfulness, this abandonment, this disdain for Latin America and the Caribbean,” said López Obrador at the start of the bilateral meeting between the delegations of both countries in the framework of the X Summit of Leaders of South America. Norte which is being held this week in Mexico City.
In addition, he stated that “there would be no other leader who could carry out this company” and urged Biden to “begin a new stage among the peoples and nations of the continent based on mutual respect and aid.” “You have the key to open and substantially improve relations between all the countries of the American continent,” he declared at the beginning of the meeting, which is being held at the National Palace.
With this proposal, López Obrador intends to renew the relations of the United States with the rest of the countries of the continentsince he considers that the only “important” development cooperation policy that has been promoted in half a century was former President John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress in 1961. “Uniting and partnering in America is equivalent to consolidating, in In short, the most important region in the world. The advantages are many. Among others, we have a young and creative workforce, technological development, and a great wealth of natural resources,” he said.
Although he recognized that it is a “complex and controversial” initiative, he considered that there is no better way to “ensure the peaceful and just future that all the peoples of the continent and future generations deserve.” This, he continued, would mean strengthening brotherhood on the continent, respecting differences and sovereignty, and leaving no one behind. “And together let’s go in search of the beautiful utopia of freedom, equality and true democracy,” he added.
One of the proposals that Mexico intends to make to the United States and Canada throughout the different meetings that they will hold at the summit is the creation of the Alliance for the Prosperity of the Peoples of the Americasas reported by the Government in the previous weeks.
After receiving him upon his arrival in Mexico last Sunday, López Obrador and Biden shared about an hour’s road trip to the capital, where the Mexican president insisted on the same idea. “It is not enough to integrate into North America, this integration is being done very well with respect to the sovereignties of Canada, the United States and Mexico, but it is very important to think about consolidating our entire continent,” López Obrador said Monday in his daily press conference, when asked about the content of that conversation.
Tonight, López Obrador, Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will participate in an official dinner and on Tuesday they will meet at the trilateral table, where they will likely discuss migration, drug trafficking and energy.