In a scathing speech about the United States, Mexico’s president blasted Washington for backing the conflict in Ukraine and continuing sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela.
Both Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico and Gustavo Petro of Colombia have blamed the United States’ continued economic sanctions on Latin America and South America for the substantial increase in the number of migrants entering the country in recent months.
The United States has placed sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba over what the US called suppression of democracy in those countries. López Obrador, believes this is false and the sanctions are due to “ideological differences” between the countries.
About 6,000 Guatemalans are among the nearly 10,000 migrants the United States receives each day at its southern border, according to López Obrador. The Darien Gap is a stretch of jungle between Panama and Colombia, and López Obrador claims that this is the route taken by the Guatemalan migrants.
Several high-ranking members of the U.S. government are currently on a visit to Mexico, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss border security and migration.
López Obrador argues that the United States should redirect its economic aid from Ukraine to Latin American nations. He pleaded with the U.S. to stop “harassing” sovereign Latin American nations by lifting sanctions and lifting blockades. He thinks that if the United States developed a “plan for cooperation” with the countries from where the majority of migrants are coming, such Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, and Cuba, then people from those countries wouldn’t feel “forced to emigrate” because of the extreme poverty they face at home. Many of the people who are trying to cross Mexico into the United States have said that they are fleeing the country because of the deteriorating economic and political conditions back home.
While Mexico has spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country has officially taken no side in the conflict.
