MEXICO CITY (AP) — Simply earlier than an internet assembly with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris Friday, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador very publicly accused the U.S. authorities of violating Mexico’s sovereignty.
The difficulty apparently didn’t come up within the assembly with Harris: “It’s not on the agenda and it’s not our intention to create a nasty ambiance,” López Obrador mentioned forward of the talks.
The assembly itself — the portion made public — centered on immigration, a key concern in U.S.-Mexico relationship together with commerce, border safety and the pandemic.
“We’re going to assist” on immigration, López Obrador informed Harris. “You possibly can depend on us.”
However with Mexico going through key congressional and state elections on June 6, the nationalist president devoted a very good a part of his information convention earlier within the day to expressing outrage over a funding resolution by the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth.
“It’s an interventionist act that violated our sovereignty,” mentioned López Obrador, who added that Mexico had filed a diplomatic be aware with the U.S. Embassy.
Lower than two hours later it was all smiles and compliments when López Obrador and Harris met — a minimum of within the publicly proven prelude to the closed assembly, which comes forward of a deliberate precise go to by Harris on June 8.
López Obrador counseled U.S. President Joe Biden for giving Harris the duty of discovering methods to deal with the foundation causes of migration, and he mentioned he deliberate to pitch once more a proposal he floated final month at Biden’s local weather summit.
The Mexican president needs the U.S. to fund a significant enlargement of one in every of his signature applications, “Planting Life,” which gives money funds to farmers who plant sure fruit and lumber timber. The purpose has been to assist maintain Mexicans of their rural communities.
Mexico has provided it as a technique to assist in Central America, too. The tougher a part of López Obrador’s pitch is that the U.S. grant six-month work visas, and ultimately citizenship, to those that take part in this system.
The Biden administration, just like the Trump and Obama administrations earlier than it, has been overwhelmed by the variety of migrant kids and households arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border and appeared to Mexico for assist in slowing transit throughout its territory.
Many of the migrants come from Central America, although the variety of Mexican migrants has risen as nicely. Harris can also be scheduled to go to Guatemala June 7.
“We agreed to work collectively to determine a strategic partnership to deal with root causes of migration, spur financial improvement, and develop safety cooperation,” Harris wrote later Friday on Twitter.
After then-President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico in 2019, López Obrador deployed the newly created Nationwide Guard to intercept migrants making their manner north.
Criticism that Mexico has enforced U.S. immigration coverage at its personal southern border has not appeared to have an effect on López Obrador’s recognition at house. He mentioned Friday he agreed with the Biden administration’s strategy.
Talking earlier to his home viewers, López Obrador responded to questions from a reporter from on-line information journal Contralinea about its report of U.S. financing for the anticorruption group Mexicans Towards Corruption and Impunity.
The group has issued studies essential of a few of López Obrador’s main initiatives, together with the cancellation of {a partially} constructed Mexico Metropolis airport and the development of a vacationer practice across the Yucatan Peninsula.
Within the diplomatic be aware proven by López Obrador on Friday, Mexico assures that it respects the function of civil society organizations and shares an curiosity in eliminating corruption, however mentioned that individuals linked to the group “have been express of their political militancy in opposition to the federal government of Mexico.”
The be aware, dated Thursday, requested the U.S. Embassy to substantiate monetary help from the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth and in that case, droop it. USAID typically helps civil society teams, often associated to human rights or democracy promotion, in lots of international locations. In some international locations, such teams typically run afoul of native governments.
In 2013, Bolivia’s then-President Evo Morales expelled USAID from his nation, alleging that it was working to undermine his authorities.
The anticorruption group mentioned Thursday through Twitter that the complaints displayed a critical misunderstanding of worldwide cooperation. “We reiterate absolutely the legality of our work,” it mentioned, rejecting any suggestion of interventionism and asking for what it mentioned had develop into fixed assaults from the federal government to cease.
A U.S. State Division spokesman mentioned Friday: “Because the Vice President mentioned as we speak, Mexico is our closest neighbor. We share not solely a border however the values of dignity and respect. We’ve constructed a productive partnership to deal with the causes of insecurity, and that partnership has by no means been extra vital.”
