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Joe Biden visits the Mexican border in the shadow of drug trafficking and illegal immigration

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The President of the United States, Joe Biden, visits the border with Mexico for the first time this Sunday, where there is fighting record in the arrival of migrantsbefore traveling to the neighboring country’s capital to meet with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.

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Biden was expected to visit the city of El Paso, Texas, one of the epicenters of the current wave of immigration, on Sunday afternoon to meet with local officials and visit the Las Americas border bridge, which connects the US territory with Mexico .

The visit, according to several analysts, is a gesture towards his conservative rivals, who They reproach him for not having set foot in the border area of 3,100 km in two years of government.

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The trip comes even when the shots of last Thursday’s ferocious and violent operation were still ringing, in which Ovidio Guzmán, son of El Chapo, historical leader of the fearsome Sinaloa cartel, was arrested.

The President of the United States was also on the agenda this Sunday to visit one of the city’s migrant service centers that receives federal funds, and to meet with community leaders.

new restrictions

Biden is traveling with his homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, just days after the White House announced new immigration restrictions, which have been criticized by both his party members and human rights organizations.

The region lives in record the migratory flow with 2.76 million migrants apprehended at the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021.

As part of a deal with Mexico, the United States will begin expelling migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who cross the border irregularly.

In a country where migration is often electoral spoils, the problem can become a stone in the shoe for Biden if he decides to seek re-election in 2024.

The monthly entry of up to 30,000 people will be allowed for two years, hardly a palliative, acknowledges Biden, who blames Republicans for blocking a more ambitious plan. The program, coordinated with Mexico, also strengthens the expulsions of those who enter illegally.

key vertex

Fentanyl trafficking, capture of Ovidio Guzmán, record migration and Mexican energy policy it will stiffen the summit of US leaders which has been hosting Mexico since Monday, where President López Obrador faces one of his biggest foreign policy challenges.

The Biden-López Obrador bilateral meeting will also be marked by the tragedy of Fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times more potent than heroin, whose production and trafficking are controlled by Mexican cartels with chemical precursors from China, according to the US anti-drug agency DEA.

“The situation is very important. The Mexican government intends to propose an agenda in defense of sovereignty, in defense of energy self-sufficiency, in favor of the most oppressed communities, to improve work flows,” research professor José María Ramos, of the Colegio de the Frontera Nord (Colef) of Mexico.

El Chapo’s son and drugs

The first meeting since November 2021 of “Los Tres Amigos”, as the group formed by Biden, López Obrador and Trudeau is known, will take place amid controversy over the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, one of the most wanted El Chapo sons in the United States and whose detention led to violent acts that left 29 dead in Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico.

López Obrador has denied that the operation has anything to do with the summit, but the United States and Canada have stepped up alerts over drug trafficking, especially fentanyl.

“We act autonomously, independently. Yes, there is cooperation and will continue to be there, but we make decisions as a sovereign and independent government,” López Obrador, who limited the presence of US agencies such as the DEA, said on Friday.

The governments of López Obrador and Biden launched a bicentennial agreement to redefine the joint security strategy in 2021, but “progress has been limited” because the United States has prioritized migration, said expert Ramos.

While the internationalist Jessica de Alba recalled that “in the light of what happened”, the issue of security “will be crucial” at the summit.

“It is curious that there are arrests before visits. But the traffic, growing, and the general strategy, are absent,” said the research professor of the University of Anahuac.

Tensions in trade and energy

On the economic side, the meeting comes in the midst of the energy consultations of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) in which Washington and Ottawa have questioned the Mexican nationalist policy that favors state-owned companies.

Both Biden and Trudeau are facing internal pressure to get López Obrador to change his energy policy.

The Colef professor believes that “Biden has been complacent” and “it would appear that there is an interest on the part of both presidents not to join the controversial panels” within the T-MEC.

These trade disagreements They come as López Obrador insists he will present an import substitution strategy for the region and America’s economic integration, something that “has no basis,” according to De Alba.

“We hope to see something with a little more substance at these summits because while it is important that these meetings take place, they are not the forum for proposing unrealistic things, but for getting really serious about competitiveness and investment in North America “. concludes.

Source: EFE

B. C

Source: Clarin

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