The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, accompanied by his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in Mexico in February 2023. Presidency of Mexico (EFE)
Mexico wants to be an interlocutor between Cuba and the United States. Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to use the diplomatic momentum of the migration summit convened last Sunday in Palenque to strengthen his regional leadership and build bridges that ease the strain on relations between Washington and Havana. The president used the high-level meeting to reiterate his opposition to the economic sanctions imposed on the island and announced that he would send a letter to his American counterpart Joe Biden to discuss the issue during his visit to San Francisco next November. “It is important that there is a dialogue,” said the President in his morning conference this Monday.
The Mexican government convened the Palenque summit with a dozen Latin American countries to form a common front against voices demanding tough solutions from Biden and who have turned the immigration crisis and anti-Mexican speeches into a political weapon in the run-up to the presidential election next Year. The aim is to send the message that Mexico is ready to talk about migration while establishing itself as an ally capable of opening channels of communication with governments like Cuba and Venezuela that are at odds with the White House .
The invitation to leaders like Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicolás Maduro, not without internal controversy, is based on this dual purpose and the belief that isolating diplomatic actors does more harm than good in addressing regional problems. Aware that he also has to prove that he can be a reliable interlocutor with Caracas and Havana, López Obrador gave space to his claims about the economic sanctions imposed by Washington to gain credibility and as part of a calculated strategy to risk within borders , which he was able to build in the bilateral relationship with Biden. “They violate international law and have serious consequences beyond the target countries,” said the joint statement after the Palenque summit, which also called for signatory countries to resume dialogue with the United States.
“We propose that the United States open a dialogue,” López Obrador said in his press conference. The Mexican president’s agenda includes a bilateral meeting with Biden as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit, which will take place November 14-16 in California. “I will discuss this issue with Biden and hope that it begins as soon as possible for humanitarian reasons. “There are condemnations from every country in the world, in every UN assembly the majority votes to lift the blockade against Cuba,” said he.
López Obrador noted the Barack Obama administration’s efforts to bring about a “thaw” with Cuba, but regretted that the normalization policy could not be continued. However, it is not clear whether Biden has the political capital or interest to resume these policies as he enters his final year in office and sets his sights on re-election while battling with the likes of Donald Trump or the governor of Florida, Santis Rum. On the other hand, there are recent signs that Washington has opened some negotiating channels with Chavismo, which resumed talks with the Venezuelan opposition last week.
The last bilateral meeting between the two governments, the high-level security dialogue in Mexico City in early October, became tense after the Biden administration announced in the middle of a diplomatic visit that it had approved an extension of the border wall with Mexico. Aside from the symbolic and the Democratic politician’s campaign promise not to continue Trump’s policies, the meeting set the precedent that the United States wants to treat migration as a national security issue and as part of both countries’ security agendas. In the eyes of several experts, this was an opportunity for Washington to call on Mexico to do more in border control, and more needed to be done to silence internal criticism.
Mexico, on the other hand, wants to address the problem through cooperation and shared responsibility. Including sanctions against Cuba may make negotiations even more complex, but sends the message that in seeking solutions to the migration crisis, the Mexican Foreign Ministry can also combine agendas depending on its interests and the way the problem is presented becomes. This is what will benefit you the most. Over the past two weeks, López Obrador has insisted that the causes of migration must be addressed and that we should not just think about walls.
“It was precisely one of the agreements of the meeting to promote bilateral dialogue between the United States and Cuba in order to reach an agreement and resolve outstanding issues, especially everything related to the blockade, which has a great impact on the population,” Lopez said. Obrador. Last week it was more obvious. “The blockade is inhumane and violates people’s human rights,” he concluded.
Cuba is Mexico’s latest ace up its sleeve to withstand pressure from the United States. But the questions Palenque leaves behind are the same ones that remain after every summit: whether or not the diplomatic acts will have an impact on the ground and lead to concrete changes. Meanwhile, the number of border crossings into the United States in the past 12 months has topped 2.7 million, a figure that official figures say exceeds the previous annual record of more than a million apprehensions. The Border Patrol has attributed the surge in part to a mass exodus from Cuba and Venezuela. In these coordinates lie the strengths and weaknesses of López Obrador’s latest diplomatic move, with one looking north and the other looking south.
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