The quiet neighbor? Mexico have yet to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory.



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The country that shares the southern border with the United States is one of the few that has not recognized that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.

Latino lawmakers have noticed.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro, a member of the Texas Democratic House, and several other Latino lawmakers criticized Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for failing to recognize Joe Biden as president-elect.

López Obrador said on Saturday he would refrain from commenting on the US election until “all legal issues are resolved”.

“This represents a staggering diplomatic failure by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the new Biden administration seeks to usher in a new era of friendship and cooperation with Mexico,” Castro tweeted Saturday in English and Spanish.

Castro, who is Mexican-American, heads the House’s foreign affairs oversight subcommittee and has said he wants to lead the entire committee.

President Donald Trump challenges election results in several states. Election officials said they had no evidence of fraud, pointing to the presence of representatives from both parties during the vote count and the transparency of the process. Experts say Trump’s efforts are unlikely to change election results.

At least half a dozen other Democratic lawmakers have joined in Castro’s criticism of López Obrador. Representative Chuy García, D-Ill., Born in Mexico, tweeted in Spanish, “Don’t let the train pass you by.” Most world leaders have recognized Biden’s victory.

Arizona Democratic State Senator Martín Quezada said: “This is more than disappointing.”

Due to mutual interests, the relationship between the United States and Mexico will be fine, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, but said López Obrador’s delay in congratulating Biden is not helpful.

“It’s a mistake on his part that will affect the tenor of the relationship to some extent at the start,” Shifter said.

López Obrador, who took office at the end of 2018, has faced tough demands from Trump to stem illegal migration through Central America to the Mexico-US border. This prevented the entry into force of severe tariffs on Mexican products.

The United States, Mexico and Canada have ratified the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, helped in part by the Trump-López-Obrador relationship. Mexico avoided deep cuts in oil production demanded by OPEC with Trump’s intervention.

López Obrador started his presidency by promising a more humane approach to migrants. But he ended up using Mexican soldiers, National Guard forces, and police to stem the flow of migrants, and he gave in to Trump’s demands to make migrants wait for their asylum court appointments. American in Mexico under the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told Mexican newspaper Reforma that the government is in contact with the Biden and Trump teams and will keep in touch over the next few days.

“Whether by keeping the [relationship] with Trump or by establishing it with Biden, who has known President López Obrador since 2012, the goal will be to have the best possible relationship, ”Ebrard told Reforma.

Some said Biden offered a new vision for US-Mexican relations after Trump launched his 2016 campaign calling Mexican immigrants rapists, murderers and people bringing drugs into the country and pledged to build a wall along of the entire Mexican border, which he would charge in Mexico. for.

He said Mexico’s ties with the United States are strategic and that López Obrador has demonstrated how seriously he takes this relationship.

López Obrador’s reluctance to recognize Biden as president-elect contrasts with the reactions of most leaders in the region, with the exception of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, sometimes referred to as “the trump card of the tropics.”

Not all leaders praised Biden. Cuba acknowledged that the United States has a new president but did not mention Biden’s name or congratulate him.

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