What is included in the program and agenda of Joe Biden in his first visit to Mexico
Joe Biden begins today in Mexico, which he is visiting for the first time officially as US president, discussions on immigration, the fight against drugs and trade, while tomorrow, Tuesday, he will also participate in the 10th summit of “North American” leaders – – USA, Mexico, Canada– along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The 80-year-old Biden was welcomed yesterday, Sunday, at Felipe Angeles Airport, about 50 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The two men then left with the American president’s armored limousine.
Today the two presidents will initially have talks, which will concern their bilateral relations. López Obrador dealt a diplomatic blow to Biden last year when he refused to attend a summit the US president organized in Los Angeles for Latin American leaders.
Immigrants and drugs
Before arriving in Mexico, Biden visited the Texas border city of El Paso, one of the largest gateways to the US for undocumented immigrants along the 3,100 kilometers of shared border between the two countries.
The US president, whom Republicans accuse of turning a blind eye to the immigration crisis, met with members of the border police.
“They need a lot of resources. We will find them,” he pledged after a visit to a border checkpoint.
Biden was accompanied by the federal Minister of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who, speaking yesterday, Sunday, to ABC asked for a “regional solution” to the immigration crisis.
The White House on Thursday announced measures to ease the situation at the border, where more than 230,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended in November.
Under Washington’s decision, up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela will be allowed to enter the US, but will have to arrive by air in order not to increase the workload of border guards at land-based points. control.
Biden has said he wants to “humanely” fix the “broken” immigration system, but his administration has introduced a bill that limits the right to asylum and has already sparked backlash from rights groups.
“Our problems at the border did not appear overnight,” Biden tweeted after arriving in Mexico, “and they will not be solved overnight. But we can try to fix this faltering system,” he added.
Migrant arrivals at the US southern border reached new record levels in late 2022, with Washington expecting the phenomenon to worsen once a health restriction imposed on asylum seekers under President Donald Trump expires, which is expected to judgment.
With López Obrador, Biden also wants to discuss dealing with drug trafficking, especially fentanyl.
Nearly two-thirds of the 108,000 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2021 involved synthetic opioids, and the amount of fentanyl seized in 2022 was more than it would take to kill the entire US population, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA ).
Three friends
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with Biden and López Obrador in the evening for a dinner in which their spouses will also be present.
The “tres amigos” (three friends), as is the name given to this diplomatic formation to which the three leaders of the North American countries belong, which are linked by a free trade agreement, will meet again tomorrow, Tuesday.
After a five-year hiatus, Biden revived this tripartite meeting in November 2021, when he welcomed the other two leaders to the White House.
In Mexico they will now try to coordinate their actions in terms of energy production and industrial policy.
The Mexican president’s plans to support state-owned enterprises in the energy sector have caused concern in the US and Canada. But Biden’s goal to boost the production of electric vehicles in the US has also caused reactions from neighboring countries.
Although the topic is not officially on the agenda, it appears that riots in Brazil, where supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace and damaged congressional buildings, will also be discussed by the three leaders.
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