Ken Salazar: The US ambassador takes away the disagreements with Mexico: “We see the world in a similar way” | International

Washington wants an understanding with the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, seeks it and sees it as possible. Issues such as the migration challenge, the policy towards the Castro regime in Cuba or the Mexican energy reform have generated tension between these two countries, partners and neighbors, but the Joe Biden Administration has taken advantage of this Thursday’s summit to reduce tensions and promote the collaboration on everything else. The United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, was optimistic, in statements to EL PAÍS, shortly before the meeting at the White House: what we are going to agree on, “he said.

The appointment of the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States, known colloquially as the three friends, faced a varied agenda of topics, from climate change to the global crisis in supply chains, but immigration always occupies a fundamental place in the dialogue of these countries. “We agree with Mexico that what has to be done is to create jobs and hope in the places of origin where the migrants come from,” said Salazar, adding that Biden “made a dozen trips to Mexico and Central America when he was vice president and knows this matter better than any other president in our history. “

The 66-year-old diplomat is a veteran Democratic politician, the first Latino to represent Colorado in the United States Senate, a state attorney and secretary of the interior during the Barack Obama administration. He was confirmed for the position last summer and inherited a complex agenda, full of edges, but with an urgent task: to change the step with respect to the turbulent relationship with the Donald Trump Administration. This Thursday, Salazar received praise from López Obrador. In his meeting with the vice president, Kamala Harris, the Mexican president described him as a “good ambassador” and compared him to the ambassador that Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed to “strengthen the relationship between both countries”.

The summit served to park misgivings. On Tuesday, a defiant López Obrador had warned of the weight of the community of voters of Mexican origin in politics when pressing for the regularization of 11 million undocumented immigrants, within an immigration reform that Biden has promised but needs support. Republican in Congress. “There are millions of US-Mexican citizens who must be vigilant and have two objectives, only two: defend Mexicans and defend Mexico,” he said in his daily morning conference, the so-called “morning”.

The ambassador avoided entering into this provocation, as well as the recent statements by the Mexican president regarding the United States’ sanctions policy towards the Castro regime. On Monday, hours before the March for Change, López Obrador said: “You cannot suffocate Cubans who have decided to stay in Cuba. I am against the blockade, I think it is inhumane, no one has the right to have a people led to rebel against their government through these practices ”. Salazar took the issue away by stating: “There are things in which Mexico has a different point of view and that is part of its sovereignty.” The same is true of Mexico’s energy reform, which seeks to cut private participation in the sector and poses a problem for US investment. “That is not going to put us in a position where we cannot work together on climate change or renewable energy,” he stressed.

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