Biden vows to take on the ‘plague’ of fentanyl as AMLO bemoans ‘abandonment’ of Latin America

The ‘Three Amigos’ summit began on Monday with a friendly fight between two of the allies, after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador complained in his first meeting with Biden about the ‘disdain’ for the region, prompting Biden to defend global US commitments

President Joe Biden got down to business in Mexico City with a bilateral meeting with his Mexican counterpart, vowing to address the constant flow of fentanyl crossing the border, as well as the immigration challenges that prompted the publication of a new policy last week. last week. He called the synthetic opioid a ‘scourge.’

He said tackling what he called ‘irregular migration’ was something ‘we are on our way to do’.

That came after López Obrador said his country could receive more than 30,000 migrants sent from the United States each month under Biden’s new policy.

But the host appeared to challenge Biden in his own comments, delivered in Spanish, while promoting JFK’s Alliance for Progress multibillion-dollar aid program during the height of the Cold War, and then complaining about global inequality.

Leftist López Obrador described it as “the only important thing that has been done in terms of cooperation… on our continent in more than half a century,” according to statements simultaneously translated into English.

He said that this is the moment “to put an end to this abandonment, this disdain and this forgetfulness of Latin America.”

That drew a verbal pushback from Biden, who spoke second, with two delegations seated at a long table set with white flower arrangements.

“The United States provides more aid than all the other countries, almost combined, in the world, not just in the hemisphere, but in the entire world,” he said.

‘Unfortunately, our responsibility does not simply end in the Western Hemisphere. It is in Central Europe. It is Asia, the Middle East and Africa and Southeast Asia. I wish we could have only one approach, only one approach. We have multiple pockets,’ he said, days after signing a bill to provide $47 billion in aid to Ukraine.

“In the last 15 years alone, we have spent billions of dollars in the hemisphere, tens of billions of dollars in the hemisphere,” Biden responded.

López Obrador also complained about Asian imports flooding his country, echoing concerns in the US about imports from China. Not too long ago, it was a flood of imports built by cheaper Mexican labor that fueled trade talks in the US.

“They come from Asia,” López Obrador said of the arrival of merchandise at stores.

‘Couldn’t we produce in the United States what we consume? That is what we are asking for. Of course we could,’ she said.

The White House has also said that improving supply chains and having critical items produced by friendly neighboring countries is a topic of discussion for the summit.

The United States asked for $2 billion in foreign assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean for fiscal year 2022, which would have been the largest allocation in a decade.

The United States has long topped the list of foreign aid providers in dollar terms, but lags behind other developed nations in terms of the size of its own economy.

Mexico’s economy, which is closely tied to exports to the US, has been suffering during the pandemic and economic slowdown, even as López Obrador worked to raise wages here. The country is experiencing slow growth.

According to a reading from the White House meeting, the two men “reviewed progress toward their ambitious climate commitments, including achieving the emissions targets set out in their Nationally Determined Contributions and meeting the goals Mexico announced in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt in November.’

They also ‘reaffirmed their commitment to implementing innovative approaches to address irregular migration,’ and Biden ‘discussed the recent announcement of additional enforcement actions, along with expanded pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to address irregular migration. President Biden and President López Obrador also reaffirmed their commitment to address the root causes of migration.’

The two leaders spoke at the top of a meeting Monday after the White House indicated that a plan to welcome an additional 30,000 legal immigrants each month was not a “fixed number.” That came after the Mexican president said his country might be willing to accept more border crossers than he previously announced the United States plans to send back.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to reporters Monday after the Biden Administration announced a plan to accept 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who apply online for asylum.

‘We’re in the early days of implementing that, and we’ll see how it goes and then make decisions about where to take the next step. So I don’t think we have a fixed number in mind,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters from the president’s luxury hotel in Mexico City hours after Biden landed here.

He was asked about Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s own statement that Mexico could receive more than 30,000 migrants from the US than previously indicated.

“We don’t want to anticipate things, but this is part of what we are going to talk about at the summit,” López Obrador said. “We support these types of measures, to give people options, alternatives,” he continued, adding that “the numbers may increase.”

For his part, Sullivan said the numbers, announced by the White House last week, had been an “iterative process.”

The concept is for the US to encourage people from the countries to apply for asylum online, while those who show up at the southern border will be sent back.

He talked about how the administration started the program for those fleeing oppression in Venezuela, then extended it to Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.

Biden landed Sunday at the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport, a pet project of the president, though it has few flights and problems with running water.

That subjected Biden, who is used to touring downtown, on a nearly hour-long drive to his hotel. But he was accompanied by the president during the hour-long ride in “the Beast,” Biden’s presidential limousine.

That made up the bulk of Biden’s diplomacy thus far. He doesn’t have any public events until after 4 pm local time, although he was to receive the President’s Daily Briefing from him.

Sullivan indicated that the limo ride was helpful, but would not disclose details.

“Yesterday, he had the opportunity to travel with President López Obrador from the airport back to the city, which gave them the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation. More or less how they see the world right now, what’s on their mind. I think they both got a lot out of it,’ she said.