MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to start a lightning, five-day tour Thursday to 4 Central American nations and Cuba to debate his authorities’s strategy to growth and methods it would assist alleviate the stress emigrate.
It is going to solely be the third abroad journey in additional than three years for a president fond of claiming that one of the best overseas coverage is sweet home coverage. The tour is a chance for Mexico to reassert itself as a pacesetter in Latin America and can be welcomed by some leaders beneath stress from the U.S. authorities and others for his or her alleged anti-democratic tendencies.
Each geographically and metaphorically, Mexico finds itself wedged between america and the remainder of Latin America. López Obrador has deflected criticism relationship to the Trump administration that his authorities is doing Washington’s soiled work in making an attempt to cease migrants earlier than they attain the U.S. border.
López Obrador can be obtained in Central America, partially, as an emissary of america in the case of migration coverage. He and President Joe Biden spoke by cellphone Friday and their overseas secretaries met in Washington Tuesday.
The U.S. authorities has been making an attempt to construct consensus forward of the June Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. It hopes to cement a regional strategy to managing migration flows, which in recent times have concerned giant numbers of Central People, but additionally extra just lately Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians and migrants arriving from different continents who make their manner up by way of the Americas.
“We’re working collectively carefully to cope with what’s an unprecedented migration problem all through our hemisphere, and for that matter all over the world, and the collaboration with Mexico is totally very important,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Tuesday.
There may be settlement between López Obrador and Biden that root causes of migration like an absence of financial alternative, crime and corruption should be addressed. López Obrador has repeatedly urged Biden to fund an enlargement of a number of the Mexican chief’s signature social applications to Central America.
One pays farmers to plant bushes that ultimately would generate earnings by way of fruit or timber and incentivizes staying put, a program praised by White Home local weather envoy John Kerry throughout a go to final yr. One other apprentices younger individuals to firms. Critics say each applications lack accountability.
The overseas ministry in Guatemala, the place López Obrador will make his first cease Thursday, mentioned it anticipated to debate immigration and the tree planting program.
Ana Vanessa Cardenas, coordinator of the worldwide relations program at Anahuac Mayab College in Merida, mentioned the hyperlink between Mexico and U.S. is vital to Central American governments beneath stress to deal with the basis causes of migration as a result of “Mexico is the facilitator of this assist and in addition a motivator of that help.”
Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei has been beneath stress from the U.S. authorities for backsliding on the nation’s battle towards corruption — a marketing campaign central to López Obrador’s picture in Mexico.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has confronted worldwide condemnation since imposing a state of emergency after a surge in gang killings on the finish of March, so a go to from López Obrador, who prefers a “hugs not bullets” strategy to safety, is sweet alternative to point out he’s not being remoted. El Salvador’s safety forces have arrested greater than 22,000 suspected gang members in simply over a month and human rights organizations say there have been many arbitrary arrests.
Mexican Sen. Emilio Álvarez Icaza, a former president of the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights, referred to as for López Obrador to droop the go to to El Salvador final week. “It might set a really critical precedent that the primary time a Mexican president is in El Salvador it’s proper within the setting of a state of emergency,” he mentioned.
“It speaks badly of Mexican democracy, however for the opposite nation (El Salvador), it has the other impact,” Cardenas mentioned. “It endorses that issues are being carried out inside a framework of worldwide recognition that Nayib Bukele could be exhausting pressed to get from one other nation.”
In Honduras, new President Xiomara Castro has cast an in depth relationship with the Biden administration. Final month, Honduras extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernández to face drug and weapons fees within the U.S. and Castro campaigned on cracking down on corruption. She is determined to activate the economic system and create jobs, so could possibly be open to López Obrador’s proposals if there’s cash behind it.
The president’s agenda in Belize is much less clear. The tiny nation doesn’t have a major migration downside, however López Obrador did trace at one matter for dialogue earlier this week. Considered one of his favourite tasks is the development of a vacationer prepare across the Yucatan Peninsula that neighbord Belize. The Maya Practice has been criticized for its environmental affect and lack of feasibility research, however López Obrador insists it can carry growth to impoverished areas.
On Tuesday, López Obrador mentioned the prepare would profit Belize and Guatemala by spurring financial exercise alongside Mexico’s southern border.
The president’s remaining cease in Cuba would be the most symbolic.
Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel visited Mexico for its independence celebrations final yr. López Obrador has largely ruled as a nationalist and populist, however he has positioned himself politically as a a loyal leftist.
“All Mexican presidents in post-revolutionary Cuban historical past have made a visit to Cuba and clearly (Andrés) Manuel López Obrador, leftist president, couldn’t be the exception,” mentioned Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican diplomat and senior director at McLarty Associates in Washington.
The go to additionally is a chance to push again towards the concept that López Obrador has been too aligned with america in serving to maintain again migration, he mentioned. López Obrador has criticized the U.S. financial blockade of Cuba and he mentioned that he advised U.S. officers that no nation must be excluded from the Summit of the Americas. The Biden administration has signaled that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua wouldn’t be invited.
“I consider that his journey to Cuba is a message to probably the most leftist wing of his group,” Guajardo mentioned.
__
AP writers María Verza in Mexico Metropolis and Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala Metropolis contributed to this report.
