On Thursday, September 23rd, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador discounted the suggestion that there could be significant friction in the Mexico-US relationship after he invited his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to Mexico’s independence day celebration and insisted that Washington end its economic embargo on the communist island.
“There’s no problem. Our adversaries would like us to come to blows, but they’ll just have to keep wanting that, it’s not going to be like that,” said Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, during his regular morning press conference at the National Palace.
He said that his call for an end to the economic blockade on Cuba is nothing new and Mexico is not the only country that has made that request before the United Nations.
He reiterated that no country has the right to subjugate another and thus other countries have also joined the request before the UN for the US to lift its embargo on Cuba.
AMLO emphasized that in June at the previous UN General Assembly meeting, 184 countries voted against the embargo on Cuba and just two countries voted to maintain it, while three countries abstained.
“It has been dealt with in the UN, just one or two of the countries belonging to the UN (did not) vote in favor of lifting the embargo on Cuba, (and that’s) almost unanimous,” the Mexican leader said.
He said that he views with optimism the change in attitude of US President Joe Biden regarding Cuba and Latin America, and he did not rule out that the US could economically support the region as it did 60 years ago “without blockading anyone.”
“I’m not ruling out that possibility,” Lopez Obrador said.
He insisted that Mexico has good relations with all the world’s countries.
“We have very good relations with all countries, with all the peoples of the world. They are relations of respect and that policy is going to be maintained. Mexico is synonymous with friendship, we’re not going to confront any government,” he added.
The Mexican leader, on various occasions, has made statements against the US embargo of the island, especially after the historic protests in Cuba on July 11 against the Diaz-Canel government.
He has also called the US embargo of Cuba “medieval” and “inhumane,” arguing that the crisis the island is experiencing is due to this policy.
In addition, on July 24, during his speech to the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States, AMLO called for Cuba to be declared a World Heritage Site for “resisting” the US.
On Sept. 16, amid Mexico’s independence festivities, the Mexican government took advantage of the situation to issue a call to the US to end its six-decade embargo policy against Cuba and reiterated its support for Havana for resisting that policy.
Source: Expansion
Mexico Daily Post
