The very discreet enthusiasm of the Mexican president for the election of Joe Biden
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on December 15 in front of a screen projecting the letter he sent to US President-elect Joe Biden, more than a month after his victory.
via REUTERS - MEXICO'S PRESIDENCY
Text by: Alix Hardy Follow
5 mins
Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and the US president-elect had their first phone conversation on Saturday, when the Mexican president was one of the last leaders to congratulate Joe Biden, in the grand voters' vote last week.
After four years of humiliation of Mexico by Donald Trump, the arrival of the Democrat does not seem to delight the Mexican head of state as much as one might expect.
Publicity
Read more
From our correspondent in Mexico,
In his own way,
Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador
had finally quite well taken his marks with Donald Trump.
Already on a personal level, the two men appreciate each other enough.
They are the opposite of the political spectrum but they are very similar in their authoritarian exercise of power.
Then the two presidents had found how to live together.
Donald Trump is obsessed with immigration.
He has blackmailed Mexico economically into the country to militarize its southern border with Guatemala.
He used the figure of the Mexican migrant as a foil for electoral purposes.
But as long as Mexico agreed to give in on the issue, Donald Trump ultimately ignored a whole host of other subjects in Mexico, such as the backtracking on environmental policy or the fight against corruption.
And this tranquility is essential for President Lopez Obrador, who intends to govern without interference.
Appeasement expected on the immigration front
In the letter he sent to Joe Biden more than a month after his victory, the two elements that stand out are these: the Mexican president thanks Biden for supporting "
migrants from all over the world and from Mexico
" , and then he talks about the importance of respecting each other's sovereignty.
In other words, Mexico is not putting its nose in American affairs and the reverse is also valid.
Migration will of course be one of the main topics of the future relationship between Obrador's Mexico and Biden's United States.
We expect appeasement on this subject.
Joe Biden is not going to review everything from top to bottom, but he has already pledged to reverse the most cruel aspects of the anti-immigration policies put in place by Donald Trump during his tenure, such as the separation of families for example. .
On this we can hope that the bilateral relationship will resume a more respectful tone.
The fight against drug trafficking as a lever for pressure?
There is another subject, however, which is currently hot: that of cooperation between the two countries against drug trafficking.
Mexico passed a law this week
that dramatically reduces the role of foreign agents and in particular the US drug agency in Mexico.
It is a debate that deserves to be held because the rules were set thirty years ago and the situation has changed a lot since.
But the way the law is drafted today does not resolve the imbalance that characterizes cooperation.
She hinders him.
And the consequences of this law on the fight against organized crime could be very significant.
Several experts see it as a political maneuver by the president, who has not yet promulgated the law: a way of putting pressure on Joe Biden because he is expected to have a lot to say about the lack of Mexican environmental policy , but also the low wages and working conditions in the country, and therefore, the fight against drug trafficking, especially fentanyl, a synthetic drug produced in Mexico and which is wreaking havoc in the United States.
Lopez Obrador tries to move away from the paradigm of the "
frontal war on drug trafficking
" which has been promoted by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and past administrations.
So he hasn't really looked for a confrontation with organized crime in the past two years.
The problem is that despite a relevant diagnosis, he was unable to propose an alternative method, and that currently, this has increased the leeway of organized crime.
Saturday, December 19, the Mexican president announced that he had had a telephone conversation with Joe Biden, who will become president of the United States on January 20, in order to revise the common agenda of the two neighboring countries.
“
I spoke by phone with the President-elect of the United States, Joseph Biden.
We reaffirm the commitment to work together for the well-being of our peoples and nations,
”Lopez Obrador wrote on his Twitter account.
Desde el histórico ayuntamiento de Valladolid, Yucatán, he conversado por teléfono con el presidente electo de Estados Unidos, Joseph Biden.
Reafirmamos el Compromise de trabajar juntos por el bienestar de nuestros pueblos y naciones.
pic.twitter.com/SFAZR9H0NP
- Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) December 20, 2020
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Mexico
United States
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Joe biden
Immigration
Diplomacy
Criminality
Drug
Donald trump
On the same subject
Americas Press Review
In the spotlight: coronavirus outbreak at the US-Mexico border
Mexico: Washington drops charges against ex-minister Salvador Cienfuegos
TRNHAITI
United States / Elections 2020: the difficult situation of migrants on the border with Mexico