Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador used a visit to the White House on Tuesday to call for rejecting the “status quo” on the border, but also praised a relationship with the U.S. that both he and President Joe Biden insisted remained strong despite a series of high-profile policy disagreements.
In lengthy comments at the start of meetings with Biden, Lopez Obrador touched on the New Deal politics of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and chided conservatives. He also vowed that the U.S. and Mexico “should close ranks to help each other” amid spiking inflation and border challenges brutally underscored by 53 migrants who died last month after being abandoned in a sweltering tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio.
That was a departure from last month, when Lopez Obrador declined Biden's invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles after unsuccessfully urging the U.S. to include the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela - all countries with anti-democratic regimes. “This is a proven strategy that fuels economic growth as well as reduces irregular migration,” Biden said.
Biden said that a “major anti smuggling operation” against fentanyl traffickers has been underway since April and had led to more than 3,000 arrests. “The time that I spent with you in Mexico was so special to me,” she said, noting the “friendship that has been so important to both nations.” Such positivity aside, some potentially thorny issues still loom. Lopez Obrador has criticized the U.S. for being more forthcoming with military aid to Ukraine than social assistance to Central America. He's also been more vocal about attempting to tamp down inflation than curb climate change or promote energy efficiency.
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