Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday that he shares the priorities established by Democrat Joe Biden to start his term in the United States and wished him success in his administration.
“I agree in his three main approaches, they are very important: (combat the) pandemic, economic reactivation and migration. And of course, wishing President Biden that he does very well in his administration,” López Obrador told the start your morning press conference.
The leftist president also vowed that Biden’s inauguration ceremony “goes very well”, that it be carried out “quietly, with peace.”
López Obrador, who managed to consolidate a close relationship with the outgoing president, Republican Donald Trump, was one of the last to congratulate Biden on his victory in the November elections, as he waited for the Electoral College meeting and confirmation on 14 December.
With some 38 million people of Mexican origin residing in the United States, López Obrador considered that for Mexico one of the most important issues on Biden’s agenda is migration.
“Our countrymen who have been working in that country for years must be regularized (…) This is complemented by support for countries in Central America and the south-southeast of Mexico to face the migratory phenomenon with development and well-being,” he said.
In the economic field, López Obrador stressed that Mexico could benefit from the reactivation in the United States due to the economic integration between the two countries.
Within the framework of the T-MEC, the North American trade agreement in which Canada also participates, the United States is Mexico’s main trading partner, which directs more than 80% of its exports there.
Analysts and opponents have warned, however, that between the López Obrador government and that of Biden, differences could arise in labor, energy, agriculture and the environment.
In recent days, the case of former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, detained by the DEA in the United States for ties to drug trafficking and handed over to Mexico for investigation, sparked accusations between both countries.
The Mexican Attorney General’s Office exonerated Cienfuegos, considering that the evidence against him was not solid, while López Obrador accused the DEA of “fabricating” the charges, something rejected by the US Department of Justice.
However, López Obrador rules out that this case could affect the bilateral relationship.