Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has threatened to unleash a flood of illegal immigrants on the United States’ southern border unless the Biden administration agrees to his lengthy series of demands—a move Lopez Obrador freely admits is tantamount to “diplomatic blackmail.” During a rare televised interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Lopez Obrador warned that “the flow of migrants will continue” unless the US lifts sanctions on hostile South American governments and pours tens of billions of dollars per year into poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In a wide-ranging discussion with “60 Minutes,” Lopez Obrador, who will leave office in less than a year, addressed his presidential legacy, his relationship with the US government, and his ongoing efforts to combat cartel activity and illegal immigration. As CBS News reported, Lopez Obrador and US President Joe Biden have been in communication since December, when American Border Patrol agents processed a record 250,000 migrants at the southern border—more than any other month on record.
Following a phone call between Biden and Lopez Obrador, Border Patrol reported a 50 percent drop-off in illegal crossings in January, for which the Mexican president took full credit. But on Sunday, he threatened to reverse the policies that made this possible unless the United States makes significant concessions.
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“If [the United States] doesn’t do the things that you said need to be done, then what?” CBS asked.
“The flow of migrants … will continue,” Lopez Obrador responded. When asked whether his threat rose to the level of “diplomatic blackmail,” he simply replied: “I am speaking frankly, we have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think.”
He then doubled down on a list of demands first issued in early January, which include granting work visas to 10 million Hispanic migrants in the US, halting the blockade of Cuba, lifting sanctions on Venezuela, and giving away $20 billion per year to impoverished Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The president of Mexico’s proposal for stemming immigration includes:
– The U.S. commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
-Lift sanctions on Venezuela
-End the Cuban embargo
-Legalize law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/rmJ1j78SxQ— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 24, 2024
Related: Lopez Obrador Calls US “Immoral” for Suggesting He Received Cartel Funding
When these demands were initially presented, Biden administration officials described it as “a very ambitious agenda” and said that “for some of these things, we would need Congress to act, [but] we share the vision that we need to lift up the region.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Lopez Obrador denied that Mexico is uniquely responsible for the fentanyl crisis, arguing that the precursor chemicals are manufactured in Asia and the drug itself is also made in the US and Canada. Even so, US authorities have linked most international fentanyl smuggling operations to cartels based in Mexico.
The president went on to argue that Mexico does not have the same drug consumption problem seen in the US because “we have our customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.”
When asked about Fentanyl here is what President of Mexico had to say:
"Do you know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we have our customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.” pic.twitter.com/5JMculS4lC
— Insider Corner (@insiderscorner) March 25, 2024
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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