(Mexico City) President Joe Biden began his first official visit to Mexico on Sunday under the sign of the fight against drugs and the record influx of migrants at the border between the two countries, a displacement overtaken by violence in Brazil .
Mr. Biden was greeted by his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as he disembarked from Air Force One which landed at 7:23 p.m. (8:23 p.m. EST) on a runway at the new Felipe Angeles Airport, in about fifty kilometers northeast of Mexico City.
Even before greeting his Mexican counterpart, Biden said he “looked forward to continuing to work” with another important US partner in Latin America, Brazilian President Lula.
On Twitter, Mr. Biden expressed his “full support” for “democratic institutions in Brazil” after the ransacking in the capital Brasilia of places of power (Congress, Supreme Court, presidential palace) by supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro
“I condemn the assault on democracy and against the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil,” added the American president, referring to the violence a week after Lula’s inauguration.
fight against drugs
MM. Biden and Lopez Obrador are scheduled to meet Monday for bilateral talks. They will be joined by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a 10e “North American Leaders” summit on Tuesday.
The partnership with Canada and Mexico is “crucial,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said over the weekend, citing the economy, democratic stability and migration issues.
Among other bilateral subjects, the United States mentions the question of the fight against drugs transiting through Mexico, starting with fentanyl, a synthetic drug.
Nearly two-thirds of the 108,000 overdose deaths recorded in the United States in 2021 involved synthetic opioids, and the amount of fentanyl seized in 2022 alone is more than would be needed to kill the entire American population. , according to the DEA (American anti-drug agency).
Mr Kirby said the United States was “grateful” for Thursday’s arrest in Mexico of a “key fentanyl trafficker”, Ovidio Guzman, son of narco-trafficker “Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a sentence of life imprisonment in the United States.
The operation left 10 law enforcement officers and 19 members of the Sinaloa Cartel dead.
Migration crisis
Before arriving in Mexico City, Mr. Biden stopped in Texas in the border city of El Paso, one of the major gateways for migrants to the United States along the 3,100 km of common border.
PHOTO CAROLYN KASTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joe Biden, upon his arrival in Texas
The American leader, accused by the Republican opposition of turning a blind eye to this crisis, met with border police officers to try to tackle a weak point in his balance sheet.
“They need a lot of resources. We will find some for them,” he said after visiting a border checkpoint.
In El Paso, Mr. Biden was greeted by the very conservative Governor of Texas Greg Abbott, one of his great detractors. His visit comes “two years too late”, Mr Abbott said.
The American president is accompanied by his Minister of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who called on ABC on Sunday for a “regional solution” to the migration crisis.
PHOTO JIM WATSON, AGENCY FRANCE-PRESSE
US President Joe Biden in discussion with Border Patrol agents in the Texas city of El Paso
The White House had already announced measures on Thursday to try to relieve the border, where more than 230,000 arrests were still recorded in November.
Up to 30,000 migrants will be allowed to enter the United States each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but they will have to arrive by air so as not to add to the workload of border guards on the ground. .
Climate change will also be on the agenda, with the United States and Mexico announcing at COP 27 a $48 billion renewable energy project.
The need to develop supply chains for electronic components in order to reduce Washington’s dependence on Asia will also be at the heart of the exchanges.