AMLO Taunts at America

The United States of America, the most powerful nation on Earth and a nation that leads by example, is neither powerful nor displaying effective leadership under her current government. A brilliant case in point was this week’s meeting between President Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as its lead up. The Mexican leader has made no qualms about antagonizing her larger and more powerful neighbor and guarantor of 80% of her export market. Lopez Obrador seeks to defend Mexico’s nationalized oil and public electricity conglomerates at the expense of the private sector, drawing the tightrope of noncompliance with the USMCA trade agreement. In the foreign policy realm, has expressed support for Russia as it wages its assault on Ukraine and has refused to join its North American neighbors in imposing sanctions. And through his boycott of the Los Angeles Summit of the America, he has indirectly sided with the “troika of tyranny” in the Western Hemisphere (Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela).?

And in United States domestic affairs, he trolls at conservative politicians who call for border security and immigration enforcement, demands that Congress approve a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and opposes the extradition of a fugitive who has shared US national security secrets. We have witnessed the extraordinary sight of Lopez Obrador instructing Americans of Mexican descent to vote out Texas Governor Greg Abbott this November. Why haven't the talking heads on MSNBC investigated this case of foreign interference in a United States election? Of course, Americans of Mexican descent are proud of their heritage while proud of their country and its democratic ideals, and will make their own decisions at the ballot box

So what was the summary of the Obrador-Biden meeting, given that Lopez Obrador seems to have a newfound relish in playing boogeyman to the United States? For starters, the time-honored “working groups,” this time on “labor and worker protections” have been formulated. And of course, there were the obligatory pledges to improve data-sharing and other forms of cooperation against the scourge of fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking. We should note the self contradiction between these words and Lopez Obrador’s promise not to prosecute drug traffickers in his own country, ditto these words and Biden’s Department of Homeland Security de-facto endorsing catch-and-release as a solution to 2 million illegal border crossers in one fiscal year. In short, it was all talk and no action, as usual.?

Paradoxically, Lopez Obrador expressed a deferred and cautious tone when dealing with former President Trump. When Trump threatened to impose a 5% tariff, progressively rising to a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports unless our neighbor to the south stopped the inflow of illegal aliens, Lopez Obrador deployed thousands of Mexican soldiers to his southern border (with Guatemala) and assented to the Migrant Protection Protocols with regards to US asylum proceedings. Despite the risk of an arousal of nationalist sentiment in Mexico as a result of tough language, the strength of our dollar and the size of our economy has proven in the past that tough language, backed up by action, brings results. Case in point, for the next year and a half, illegal border crossing plummeted (though this was also aided by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic). It’s an important caveat for the Biden Administration, which has decided to reinstate the failed policies of the last Democratic White House, spreading mixed messages about the travails of illegal migrants and paying lip service to border security and enforcement. This has emboldened Lopez Obrador, who has a history of saying one thing and then doing something else.?

A clear majority of Americans know that if our border is not secure and commerce cannot be conducted in an orderly and safe fashion, then there is no chance that Congress or the American people themselves will assent to a broad expansion of immigrant visas or legalization pathways, as Mexico has wanted desperately for years. They are willing to help lift the illegal migrants who have established themselves in this country out of the shadows, but not at the expense of their safety, welfare, or wallets. They know that these political and societal expectations should be translated to Mexico’s leaders in clear and unambiguous terms. The President, being in public service for 50 years, should know better. Instead, he seeks to avoid confrontation, thereby demonstrating American weakness. Biden should appease his own citizens before he appeases Mexico’s leftist maverick.