Foreign Pool Reports of March 1, 2021

Foreign Pool Report #1 - Virtual Meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – Background

Good afternoon!

I am Raquel Krähenbühl with TV Globo and I will be your foreign pooler during the bilateral virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador this afternoon - 4:30 pm.

While we wait, here is some background information:

President Lopez Obrador is the President of Mexico since December 2018 - limited to a single six-year term. He is a left-wing populist who has been a politician for more than three decades.

Besides writing a book – "Oye, Trump" - where he accused former President Donald Trump of racism against Mexicans and "hispanophobia"- AMLO developed personal chemistry with Trump and agreed to toughen his migration policy and embrace NAFTA negotiations. Lopez Obrador first - and only - official international trip was to Washington on July 8, 2020 (on a commercial flight) - in the middle of the pandemic - to celebrate the start of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal.

President Lopez Obrador was one of the last world leaders who recognized President Joe Biden's election victory – along with presidents of Brazil, China, and Russia. AMLO, who himself accused his rivals of election fraud in his defeats in 2006 and 2012, justified the delay by saying he couldn't "make any kind of recognition of a government that is not yet legally and legitimately constituted. It's not up to us, that's interventionism".

Lopez Obrador recognized Biden's victory after the formal electoral college vote – sending him a two-page letter on December 14. AMLO emphasized that "Mexico and the U.S. can't be distant neighbors with more than 38 million Mexicans living in the U.S. and more than a million Americans in Mexico". They had their first call five days later- on December 19.

On January 22 - just one day after Biden's inauguration- they had the first call as presidents. Lopez Obrador was the second foreign leader President Biden spoke with – after the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. In a statement, the government of Mexico said "they agreed on stronger and closer collaboration based on mutual respect and shared expectations for the benefit of both societies".

The meeting with Lopez Obrador this afternoon will be President Biden's second virtual meeting- after last week's with Trudeau - and the second time they meet (first was in Mexico City in 2012 when Obrador was a presidential candidate and Biden then vice-presiden- https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/11/09/entre-cordialidad-y-br... ). The Foreign Secretary of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, previewing the meeting said "a new stage of cooperation begins''.

The White House announced their meeting on Friday saying "the two leaders will discuss cooperation on migration, joint development efforts in Southern Mexico and Central America, COVID-19 recovery, and economic cooperation".

TOPICS / PRIORITIES:

- COVID:

First reported by Reuters, President Lopez Obrador is expected to ask President Biden to share part of the U.S. coronavirus vaccine supply with Mexico. AMLO has called the distribution system "totally unfair". According to the report, "Obrador would ask for a loan of the U.S. vaccine supplies, to be paid back when vaccines that Mexico has contracts for are delivered later in the year". Press secretary Jen Psaki said today Biden would not consider sharing the vaccine and added "the President has made clear that he is focused on ensuring that vaccines are accessible to every American."

Mexico has reported more than 2 million coronavirus cases and over 185,000 deaths - the third in the world with most deaths after the U.S. and Brazil. Besides not being on the U.S. travel restriction list, the Mexico-US land border is closed to all non-essential travel until at least March 21. U.S. officials insist the country cannot open borders if Mexico has not addressed the pandemic.

Tackling the pandemic is the most urgent matter on their agenda.

- IMMIGRATION:

This weekend, President Lopez Obrador said he plans to discuss the importance of the Mexican workforce to expand the U.S. economy and plans to propose an immigrant labor program. Obrador said he estimates the U.S. economy is going to need between 600k-800k workers per year. "Let's organize and legalize the migratory flows to give workers guarantees, so they don't need to risk their lives and their human rights are protected. This is why we will be proposing a deal"- he said Saturday. https://presidente.gob.mx/27-02-21-version-estenografica-evaluacion-del-...

The anti-immigrant policies for the past 4 years created a burden for Mexico - where the Remain in Mexico policy became a major domestic issue. Mexico is eager to discuss it with president Biden who promised a fair and humane immigration system. Immigration was one of the top priorities during the two presidents first call January 22:

The government of Mexico said "Obrador welcomed the recognition of the contributions made by the Mexican migrant community in the United States and reiterated Mexico's belief that the way to a lasting solution to the issue of migration is by promoting development in communities of origin". https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/president-lopez-obrador-and-president-bide...

The White House said "the President outlined his plan to reduce migration by addressing its root causes, increasing resettlement capacity and lawful alternative immigration pathways, improving processing at the border to adjudicate requests for asylum, and reversing the previous administration's draconian immigration policies. The two leaders agreed to work closely to stem the flow of irregular migration to Mexico and the United States, as well as to promote development in the Northern Triangle of Central America"

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/23/readout-of-president-joe-biden-call-with-president-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-of-mexico/

- TRADE/ ECONOMIC COOPERATION:

The United State is Mexico's top trade partner and Mexico is the second biggest trade partner of the U.S. (Mexico's trade with the U.S. was $614.5 billion in 2019 and the U.S. deficit with Mexico topped $100 billion for the first time in 2019).

In 2019, the new trade deal – USMCA- was signed after negotiation with two Mexican administrations. But some say Mexico could violate the deal with his Fourth Transformation program - a domestic policy program that has advanced efforts to possibly eliminate independent watchdog and transparency agencies in Mexico, prioritized state power plants and oil companies against private investment in the energy sector and breaking commitments on climate change.

Lopez Obrador's goal is to prevent the U.S. from meddling in his domestic policy.

- SECURITY COOPERATION:

Experts point out the need to address some recent tensions for security cooperation.

Last October, the U.S. arrested Mexican former defense minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos, on drug-trafficking and corruption charges. AMLO accused the DEA of fabricating evidence against Cienfuegos and retaliated with new security law to restrict U.S. anti-drug operations in Mexico. In November, the Justice Department dropped the case and Cienfuegos was allowed to return to Mexico- where later he was cleared of all charges, despite Mexican authorities promises to bring justice.

Another episode that raised eyebrows in the U.S. was when AMLO offered political asylum to Julian Assange- the WikiLeaks founder who faces charges in the U.S. for publishing classified documents.

Foreign Pool Report #2 - Virtual Meeting with President AMLO - Spanish part of the meeting

Pool was in the room for about 15 minutes.

President Biden started the conversation remembering that from the 16 visits he made to Latin America, four were to Mexico. He said it was an honor to meet president Obrador on one of these visits (March 2012).

POTUS also mentioned he got to know Mexico and its people and paid respect to Virgin de Guadalupe: " As a matter of fact I still have the rosary my son had when he passed"

President Obrador spoke in Spanish and thanked President Biden for starting the meeting by mentioning the Virgin of Guadalupe. " We as Mexicans respect and admire two symbols. They might be different however they call to the plurality of our country- one is the virgen de guadalupe and Benito Juárez (the first president of Mexico who was of indigenous origin) - the best president we ever had."

More AMLO quotes:

"I would like to thank you for starting the conversation by stating that Mexico is as important to you. It is important that we base our good relationship on constant dialogue. I know our relations in the future will be even better".

"We are united by 3180 kilometers of border, but we are not only united by geography, we are united by our economies, our trade, our culture, our history and our friendship"

"We had a Mexican president who dominated the country for 34 years... He used to say 'poor mexico so far from God and yet so close to the United States'. I can now say 'It's wonderful for Mexico to be close to God and not so far from the United States' "

''Integration will strengthen both of our countries... Our relations are strategic. I also want to thank you for wanting to base our relations on respect and equality. And we must keep cooperating for further development based on independence and autonomy. Potentialize what our people means to us."

Before we left the room, I asked president Biden if he plans to send vaccines to Mexico. He responded "we will talk about that"

Unlike the meeting with the Canadian Prime-minister, we are not expecting statements from the presidents after the meeting.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.