In a Mexico “overwhelmed” by the migration crisis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked his American counterpart, Joe Biden, for a bilateral meeting in November, in Washington, Mexican Chancellor Alicia Bárcenas announced this Friday (22).
The Mexican president plans to participate in the summit of Latin American countries called by Biden for November 3, whose objective is to follow up on the launch, at the beginning of the year, in Los Angeles, of the Association of the Americas for Economic Prosperity.
López Obrador intends to discuss with Biden the current “legal routes” to analyze the humanitarian situation that causes migration, evaluate the platform for requesting asylum, work visas for the agricultural sector, among other topics.
Mexico is “overwhelmed” by the arrival of migrants to its territory, Bárcenas said.
Around 9,000 arrive daily at Mexico’s northern border, 3,000 coming from the Darién forest, the chancellor explained. Meanwhile, 8,000 arrive at the southern border to try to enter the United States.
“Just yesterday 11,000 arrived,” he said. “That reduces any capacity, no matter how much Mexico wants to do a good job,” she added.
During this year, they expect to process 140,000 asylum applications. “It’s scary,” he said, assuring that it is Mexico that puts up the money to allow these migrants to survive, while they obtain documents and find a job, or to return them to their countries of origin when the United States does not accept them. .
“We need help,” he added, before defending the suspension of sanctions on Venezuela, as this “could help” stop the exodus of migrants.
He also defended working in Darién, because “it is where the largest flow of migrants” leaving Venezuela comes from, which is why he considers coordination with Panama and Colombia necessary.
The Mexican president wants to focus, above all, “on the structural causes of migration” with his American counterpart and “articulate” a policy with Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras, said Bárcenas, who this Saturday is scheduled to participate in the General Assembly of the UN representing its president.
Most migrants arriving in Mexico come from Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala and Honduras.
– Fentanyl on the agenda –
Fentanyl, which caused nearly 110,000 overdose deaths in 2022 in the United States, will also be on the agenda for talks with Biden.
This week, Todd Robinson, undersecretary of the US Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, assured that transnational mafias send fentanyl precursor chemicals from China to Mexico, where the pills that later arrive in the United States are prepared and pressed.
In addition to controlling precursors – also used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries – which arrive at Mexican ports, in particular Manzanillo, Bárcenas advocated addressing the causes of consumption.
Regarding Haiti, the chancellor urged the Security Council to approve a resolution to send an international force to help the police end the power of the gangs that have placed the country in an unprecedented humanitarian, political and security crisis, but assured that Mexico does not plan to send military forces due to the “many restrictions” that the country has for doing so.
Mexico has trained 550 Haitian police officers and is now training 110 more.
Finally, Bárcenas called for the withdrawal of Russian military forces from Ukraine and respect for the integrity of the borders recognized before the invasion as a way to end the conflict.
© Agence France-Presse
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