Mexico’s president praises Biden agenda

Mexico City, Jan 20 (efe-epa).- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed agreement Wednesday with the “principal approaches” of Joe Biden as the veteran politician was about to sworn-in as the 46th president of the United States.

“I have been reading (Biden’s proposals) and coincide with its three principal approaches,” the Mexican leader, known as AMLO, said at his daily morning press conference hours before the inauguration in Washington.

The leftist president hailed Biden’s stated priorities of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, reactivating the economy and comprehensive immigration reform.

“Our compatriots who have spent years working in the United States, contributing to the development of that great nation, should be legalized,” AMLO said, expressing confidence in Biden’s support for a measure he described as “good for Mexico.”

AMLO recalled that nine years ago, as leader of the opposition, he presented to Biden, then serving as vice president under Barack Obama, a letter asking the administration to “regularize” the status of the millions of undocumented Mexicans in the US.

But agreement on immigration reform remained as elusive during Obama’s presidency as it was under his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Talking to reporters in Mexico City just as outgoing President Donald Trump was departing the White House, AMLO said that with 38 million Mexican-born people living and working north of the border, “the arrival today of a new president of the United States is very important.”

“We hope that everything goes well, that this ceremony is carried out with tranquility, with peace, and that it be for the good of the people of the United States, who are our neighbors and brothers,” the Mexican leader said of the event in a Washington occupied by 28,000 National Guard troops to avert a repeat of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters.

AMLO, who was criticized for waiting until the election result was certified to congratulate Biden on his victory, has been careful to avoid antagonizing Trump, whose 2016 election campaign was filled with harsh rhetoric against immigrants and against Mexico.

In 2019, AMLO’s government militarized Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala to block Central American migrants trying to reach the US.

The step followed a threat by Trump to slap tariffs on all Mexican imports if AMLO didn’t put a halt to the north-bound migrant caravans. EFE er/dr