Tensions have emerged between the US and Mexican presidents over points resembling commerce, vitality and international coverage.
The US-Mexico relationship — an easy tradeoff in the course of the Trump administration, with Mexico tamping down on migration and the USA not urgent on different points — has turn into a variety of disagreements over commerce, international coverage, vitality and local weather change.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is to go to Washington on Tuesday to satisfy with US President Joe Biden, a month after Lopez Obrador snubbed Biden’s invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
Mexico’s chief had demanded that Biden invite to the summit the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — all international locations with anti-democratic regimes — and he has additionally known as US assist for Ukraine “a crass error”.
On that, and different points, it’s clear Lopez Obrador is getting alongside a lot worse with Biden than with Donald Trump, who threatened Mexico, however wished just one factor from the US’s southern neighbour: to cease migrants from reaching the border.
“I believe it's extra that the Biden administration has tried laborious to re-institutionalise the connection and restore the connection that’s not centred solely on immigration and commerce. And I believe consequently, that results in points arising that AMLO is much less comfy speaking about,” mentioned Andrew Rudman, director of the Mexico Institute on the Wilson Middle, utilizing the Spanish acronym by which Mexicans seek advice from the president.
US officers need Lopez Obrador to retreat on his reliance on fossil fuels and his marketing campaign to favour Mexico’s state-owned electrical energy utility on the expense of foreign-built crops powered by fuel and renewable vitality.
Washington has filed a number of complaints underneath the US-Mexico-Canada free commerce settlement, pushing Mexico to implement environmental legal guidelines and guidelines guaranteeing commerce union rights.
Lopez Obrador additionally has angrily rejected any US criticism of the killings of journalists in Mexico or his personal efforts to weaken checks and balances in Mexico’s authorities. He's additionally angered by US funding of civic and non-governmental teams in Mexico that he claims are a part of the opposition.
All of it provides as much as a witches’ brew in bilateral relations.
“On the finish of the day, the issue is that you've got the whole mismatch on this relationship,” mentioned Arturo Sarukhan, who served as Mexico’s ambassador to the US from 2006 to 2013.
The US “wants Mexico as a key accomplice on all the things from ‘close to shoring’ [manufacturing for the US market] … by way of competitiveness, by way of North American vitality safety, vitality independence, vitality effectivity,” Sarukhan mentioned. “The issue is you've got a Mexican president who doesn’t care about any of this stuff.”
What the Mexican president is involved in speaking about is inflation, which in June spiked to nearly 8 p.c. Inflation and the financial after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic are main an rising variety of Mexicans to to migrate — 22 of the 53 migrants who not too long ago died after being deserted by smugglers in a semi-trailer in Texas have been Mexican.
“We've got to search for a option to act collectively, assist one another in controlling inflation,” Lopez Obrador mentioned on Friday. “That could be a matter I'm going to suggest. We've got a plan.”
Earlier than departing for Washington on Monday, Lopez Obrador mentioned he deliberate to talk to Biden about controlling inflation, immigration and safety. He mentioned a bunch of enterprise leaders, together with Carlos Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest citizen, would accompany him.
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned on Friday that the Bidens are trying ahead to welcoming Lopez-Obrador and his spouse on the White Home.
“They'll talk about a broad and deep agenda, together with joint efforts on migration, meals safety and financial alternative, and so the president seems to be ahead to having that dialog,” Jean-Pierre mentioned.
She sidestepped questions on Lopez Obrador’s repeated public criticism of the Biden administration, together with US efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the UK for prosecution.
“We see AMLO, the president of Mexico, as a accomplice,” she mentioned, including that many conversations can be had. “And I’m going to depart it at that.”
The query is how laborious the Biden administration is prepared to push Mexico on something.
With Republicans like Texas Governor Greg Abbot relentlessly pointing on the migration challenge, Mexico holds enormous leverage. It's underneath no obligation to just accept anybody returned at its border besides Mexican residents, however it has allowed the US to proceed to deport migrants of different nationalities underneath Title 42 well being laws.
Lopez Obrador badly desires the US to grant extra work visas to Mexicans and Central People. Whereas that is still a sensitive challenge in US home politics, extra visas may assist tame clandestine border crossings.
Rising such visas “would appear to be a option to resolve the labour scarcity we've got on this nation, and in addition scale back among the strain on Mexico and Central America”, Rudman mentioned. “So it looks as if one thing that Lopez Obrador is for, and the Biden administration could be inclined to supply.”
Lopez Obrador seldom passes up an opportunity to annoy the US. He not too long ago mentioned the Statue of Liberty needs to be dismantled and returned to France if Assange is imprisoned within the US.
Nonetheless, there are some indicators that Mexico has tried to make up for the summit and different slights.
In late Might, Mexico began to crack down on tons of of meth and fentanyl labs which were sending to the US a gradual stream of these medication, which have precipitated the overdose deaths of tens of hundreds of People.
Mexico’s seizures of meth labs went from six in Might to 72 in June, and plenty of of these labs seem to have been working for years. And days earlier than Lopez Obrador left for Washington, authorities raided two giant warehouses within the northern metropolis of Culiacan, discovering a half ton of fentanyl and a half million fentanyl capsules.
Rudman is sceptical the Mexican military simply all of the sudden discovered so many labs have been working. “How may Mexico not have identified?” Rudman asks.
The query stays of why Lopez Obrador acquired alongside so significantly better with Trump than he does with Biden. “I believe you possibly can argue that AMLO and Trump ran related campaigns and received for related causes,” mentioned Rudman.
Lopez Obrador’s programme of encouraging Mexican self-sufficiency in meals, vitality and different areas harkens again to a Trump-like nationalism. “It’s make Mexico nice once more,” Rudman mentioned.
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