Mexico’s president on Friday slammed US support for Ukraine and financial sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba and different nations as the primary of two high-level US-Mexico conferences obtained underneath method in Washington.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a broad criticism of US international coverage, saying US financial sanctions had been forcing folks to to migrate from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The cruel feedback got here as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Commerce Consultant Katherine Tai had been assembly their Mexican counterparts on the State Division.
Yesterday’s talks will concentrate on commerce and commerce points however Blinken will lead a US delegation to Mexico subsequent week with Lawyer Common Merrick Garland and Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that may concentrate on border safety and migration.
The State Division stated in a press release that Blinken can be assembly López Obrador through the October 4-5 journey.
Specialists say financial mismanagement and political repression are largely guilty for the tide of migrants leaving Venezuela and Cuba.
López Obrador stated the USA ought to spend a few of the cash despatched to Ukraine on financial improvement in Latin America.
“They (the US) don’t do something,” he stated. “It’s extra, much more, what they authorise for the struggle in Ukraine than what they offer to assist with poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
He known as for a US programme “to take away blockades and cease harassing unbiased and free nations, an built-in plan for cooperation so the Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans, Ecuadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans wouldn’t be compelled to to migrate”.
There was a surge in Venezuelan migrants transferring by way of Mexico in latest weeks in a bid to achieve the US border. Most of the migrants say deteriorating financial and political situations of their residence nation led them to make the journey.
Mexico has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine however has adopted a coverage of neutrality and has refused to take part in sanctions. Mexico additionally continues to purchase 2020-vintage COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and Cuba.
The Mexican president laughed off an effort by US Republican lawmakers to chop the tiny quantity of international support the US provides to Mexico. López Obrador estimated it concerned US$40 or US$50 million, calling it “ridiculous”.
