There has been some network news reporting of the massive incoming migrant caravan, inasmuch as it is timed to coincide with the visit of Secretaries of State and Homeland Security Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas to Mexico, where they are scheduled to meet with government officials (and perhaps with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AKA AMLO) on how to deal with the ongoing border disaster. What the media have not told you, however, is that among AMLO’s demands in exchange for border assistance is an opening with the communist Castro dictatorship that might lead to the end of the Cuban Embargo.
AMLO said it plain as day during his Friday morning press conference:
PRESIDENT ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR (MX): We also want the differences with Cuba to be addressed. We would very much like, we have already raised it with President Biden, for a bilateral Cuba-United States dialogue to be opened.
…
And the other thing is to continue helping to solve problems of a political nature, like what happened in Cuba, like what happened in Venezuela, like what happened in Guatemala, because all of this in one way or another encourages migration.
AMLO’s half right, in that the situation in Cuba is indeed a root cause of migration into the United States. But it’s not the embargo. Rather, it is a brutal communist dictatorship that has metastasized throughout the hemisphere, bringing starvation and death to once-prosperous countries such as Venezuela.
Surely, AMLO must know that the Cuban Embargo has been codified as the Helms-Burton Act, and cannot be repealed save by a literal act of Congress. Nonetheless, AMLO is going to try to browbeat the Biden administration into, at the very least, revisiting Obama’s ill-fated Cuba Deal. AMLO must also know that the recent arrest of a high-level Cuban spy has probably spooked the Biden administration out of any interest in rapprochement with the Castro regime.
Reasonable individuals can conclude that, less than a week from Biden handing over the crown jewel of the Maduro dictatorship, reporting on AMLO's asks ahead of any border meetings would make the story more adverse to the Biden White House than it already is.
Given the ease of access to AMLO's press conference transcripts, there is no other plausible explanation for the exclusion of his mindset ahead of his government's meeting with Mayorkas and Blinken.
Click “expand” to view the aforementioned relevant portion of Mexico’s presidential press conference from Friday, December 22nd, 2023 (full press conference transcript here):
REPORTER: Thank you, president. A second question I want to ask you is: a moment ago you just mentioned the role of Mexicans abroad, specifically in the United States. Yesterday you made a call with Joe Biden, who commented in the morning. What is the agreement you reached with the American president? What is the reason for the following negotiation? And the issue of Greg Abbott and this Texas governor and this law where migrants are being detained was discussed. Thank you, president.
PRESIDENT ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR (MX): Well, we talked about various topics, related to the economy. We came to the conclusion that we need each other, we complement each other, we are neighboring peoples, brother peoples. We have to maintain our commercial relationship, which, as I already said, is the most important in the world, the United States' main trading partner is Mexico, this has been achieved in recent times. And we need to work together and we are doing so. Now we are presented with an extraordinary situation because the number of migrants passing through our country with the purpose of reaching the United States has increased, especially the number of Venezuelan migrants, also Haitians, Cubans, and Ecuadorians, and the number has grown. And in Piedras Negras, in Coahuila, there are many migrants wanting to pass. This has limited the normal functioning of the bridges and the passage through that port of entry. And we will help, as we always do. We are seeking agreements, not only with the United States government, Mexico is helping reach agreements with the Venezuelan government in this case.
We also want the differences with Cuba to be addressed. We would very much like, we have already raised it with President Biden, for a bilateral Cuba-United States dialogue to be opened.
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REPORTER: But what specifically did (Biden) ask for? What was the agreement?
LÓPEZ OBRADOR: The agreement is that we continue working together. We already have a proposal to reinforce our plans for what we have been doing.
REPORTER: In other words, are containment measures going to be reinforced in the south of the country so that they do not reach...?
LÓPEZ OBRADOR: Basically, basically. But it is not only containment, it is two more things:
First, let's see if we can carry out the development plan for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, which we have been proposing for some time.
REPORTER: That there has not been the investment.
LÓPEZ OBRADOR: That there has not been an answer, because that is going to address the causes. We have always said it, the problem of migration or the migratory phenomenon or, rather, it has to do with the need for people to make a living where there is work; It's not by choice, it's by necessity. So, that is what we are going to deal with, it is not just containment. And the other thing is to continue helping to solve problems of a political nature, like what happened in Cuba, like what happened in Venezuela, like what happened in Guatemala, because all of this in one way or another encourages migration.
