In English, it’s the middle finger. In Spanish, it is “el dedo medio.” It means the same thing in both languages. And it sure looks to me that Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador just gave the U.S. delegation the finger.
To be fair, you can not blame Lopez-Obrador for being angry with Joe Biden. Not long ago, AMLO, as they know him south of the border, negotiated a pretty good deal with the Trump administration, i.e., “Remain in Mexico.” It worked well because it discouraged migrant caravans. Why would you pay something to bring you to the U.S.-Mexico border if you can’t get into the U.S.? The objective is to get into the U.S., not spend time in Mexico waiting for a judge to review your case.
So what do we do now?
First, let’s recognize that President Lopez-Obrador leaves office in 11 months. Most Mexican presidents leave office and disappear totally. I believe that AMLO has other plans. He wants to be an international leader of the Third World, and speaking for migrants is a big part of his plan.
Second, AMLO is a leftist, as his love of communist regimes worldwide demonstrates. This is from The Dallas Morning News editorial:
López Obrador has become a defender of rogue and repressive regimes that have squandered their economies and triggered mass exoduses. These countries need aid but also policies leading to better governance, as we have outlined in our series The Unraveling of Latin America.
Mexico has deported a record number of migrants this year but now says it needs more funding. Last weekend, Mexican officials did nothing to contain a caravan of an estimated 6,000 migrants, a sign they could do more if they wanted to.
Right now, a containment policy to control these migrant flows is needed at the southern Mexican border, and López Obrador, who criticized the U.S. for using barbed wire and physical obstacles to contain migrants, should offer cooperation instead of criticism. His quid pro quo proposal does not look like a common strategy, and the U.S. must be ready to pressure him to be a better partner.
That will require President Biden to engage directly. Right now, he’s on vacation. That’s a mistake when a crisis is at hand.
Yes, our president is on vacation. Worse than that, AMLO is not afraid of him. He knows that nothing will happen. There won’t be any U.S. taxes on remittances, or economic sanctions, or designations of Mexico’s cartels as terrorist organizations.
Trump got AMLO to work with him. Biden can’t. As my late Cuban mother used to say, “Colorín, Colorado, este cuento se ha acabado,” loosely translated to: The story is over and don’t expect any changes.
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That photo says it all: Biden looks like he doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing. And he’s still running for re-election, which is beyond ludicrous. Alas, if he winds up being the Dem candidate, Dem voters will still support him, just as they’d vote for a trained monkey if it came to that. Really, words fail.