Mexico (AFP) – The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked his American counterpart, Joe Biden, this Saturday, to cancel his trade penalties against Venezuela and Cuba, after the accident in which nine Cubans died in Guatemala.
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In a telephone conversation, López Obrador urged Biden to “suspend sanctions on Venezuela” and “lift the blockade on Cuba and not hinder its development” in order to reduce migratory flows from both countries, the Mexican presidency reported in a statement. .
According to the statement, the left-wing president told Biden:
Any law approved on this matter that ignores the causes of the migration phenomenon and does not address them is condemned to become a dead letter.
For its part, the White House reported that both agreed to “continue their productive partnership” in the face of immigration challenges.
This conversation takes place at a key moment, given that the imminent announcement of a pact negotiated by a group of Republican and Democratic senators is expected, which would drastically tighten United States immigration policy.
Although it remains to be seen whether it will be adopted by Congress, Biden has already announced that it constitutes “the toughest set of reforms” in the country's history and would allow “closing the border” with Mexico “when it is collapsed.”
The details of the bipartisan pact are unknown but everything indicates that it will toughen immigration and asylum policy, because it is a condition imposed by the Republicans to unblock in Congress a package that includes tens of billions for Ukraine, as well as as funds for Israel and to strengthen border security.
“It's more of the same, they don't want to go to the bottom,” said López Obrador on Thursday. “Imagine what it is like to close the border! How long can it remain closed? It hurts both countries. But it is not an option,” said the Mexican president.
Eleven people, including nine Cuban migrants, died this Saturday, February 3, in the collision between a van, a motorcycle and a truck in western Guatemala, the border with Mexico and the entry route into this country for undocumented migrants seeking to reach the United States. Joined.
With more than 3,000 km of border with the United States, Mexico is a transit and retention country for migrants, mainly from Central American countries plagued by violence or poverty (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador), the Caribbean (Haiti, Cuba) or Venezuela, which clash with the restrictive policies of the United States.
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