On Tuesday, July 12th, the president of Mexico was not welcomed by the US president on his arrival at the White House, he was not even greeted at the front door, he and his wife did not sleep in the Blair House, as regularly head of state leaders do, instead, they were placed at the Lombardy Hotel.
It is evident that Mr. Biden was not pleased with Lopez Obrador boycotting the Summit of the Americas, conditioning his assistance, and saying that he will not attend unless the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua were invited too.
Of course, the government of the United States of America does not approve the regimes of those three dictatorial and anti-democratic countries, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro is wanted in the US for drug trafficking and money laundering for God’s sake, how can AMLO expect that he can be invited to a Summit on American soil, it’s illogical.
And so López Obrador sat next to his American counterpart at the White House on Tuesday and spent nearly 30 minutes rattling off thinly veiled barbs over everything from U.S. immigration policy to gas prices along with “grievances that are not really easy to forget with time or with good wishes.”
Biden acknowledged many of the points López Obrador made. But he also dismissed reports about tension between the two leaders.
“You and I have a strong and productive relationship and, I would argue, a partnership,” Biden told López Obrador.
The exchange was indicative of a U.S.-Mexico relationship that remains strained — even as Biden has opted for diplomacy where his predecessor used insults and threats. During his administration, former President Donald Trump had constantly touted plans to build a border wall and threatened tariffs if Mexico didn’t work harder to stop migrants from trying to cross it. The 45th president regularly showed his disdain for America’s neighbor to the south.
That was then. Now, Biden needs López Obrador’s cooperation to tackle global inflation along with a host of other issues, including addressing the record number of migrants making the trek to the U.S. And the Mexican president seems to know it.
“López Obrador has learned after three and a half years in the presidency what he can get away with in the relationship with the U.S. that shows his distance and yet doesn’t break the relationship,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, emphasizing close cooperation even if the “rhetoric is less warm.”
“And the reality is immigration is a very politically sensitive topic that Biden needs to deal with Mexico on,” he said. “He’s also trying to keep allies close at a time when the world order is shifting because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
With information from El Financiero
