Biden vows to take on the 'plague' of fentanyl as AMLO bemoans 'abandonment' of Latin America - Daily Mail

Biden vows to take on the 'plague' of fentanyl and says we're 'on our way' to tackling 'irregular migration' – as Lopez Obrador complains about imports from Asia and the 'abandonment' of Latin America

• Biden and Lopez Obrador rode together after Biden landed Sunday
• Lopez Obrador complained of 'disdain' for the region
• Biden touted billions in U.S. aid and commitments around the world 
• Earlier Lopez Obrador said Mexico may accept additional migrants from US
• Their one-on-one was first meeting of 'Three Amigos' summit 

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.Com In Mexico City

Published: 01:25 GMT, 10 January 2023 | Updated: 09:08 GMT, 10 January 2023

The 'Three Amigos' summit got started Monday with a bit of a friendly quarrel between two of the allies – after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador complained in his first meeting with Biden about 'disdain' for the region, prompting Biden to defend U.S. global commitments.

President Joe Biden got down to business in Mexico City with a bilateral meeting with his Mexican counterpart, vowing to take on the steady flow of fentanyl that is streaming across the border, as well as migration challenges that prompted a new policy release last week. He called the synthetic opioid a 'scourge.'

He said tackling what he called 'irregular migration' was something 'which we're well on our way to doing.' 

That came after Lopez Obrador signaled his country might take more than 30,000 migrants sent back from the U.S. each month under Biden's new policy. 

But the host appeared to challenge Biden in his own remarks, delivered in Spanish, as he touted JFK's multi-billion Alliance for Progress aid program during the height of the Cold War, then complained about global inequality. 

The left-wing Lopez Obrador called it the 'only important thing that has been done in terms of cooperation ... in our continent in more than half a century,' according to remarks simultaneously translated into English.  

He said this is the moment 'to do away of this abandonment, this disdain and this forgetfulness for Latin America.'

That prompted some verbal pushback from Biden, who spoke second, with two delegations seated across a long table lined with white floral arrangements.

'The United States provides more for aid than every other country, just about, combined in the world to not just the hemisphere, but around the world,' he said. 

'Unfortunately, our responsibility just doesn't end in the Western Hemisphere. It's in Central Europe. It's Asia, Middle East, and Africa and Southeast Asia. I wish we could just have one focus, only one focus. We have multiple foci,' he said, days after signing a bill to provide $47 billion in aid to Ukraine. 

'Just in the last 15 years, we've spent billions of dollars in the hemisphere – tens of billions of dollars in the hemisphere,' Biden responded.

Lopez Obrador also complained about Asian imports flooding his country – echoing concerns in the U.S. about imports from China. Not long ago, it was a flood of imports built by cheaper Mexican labor that drove trade discussions in the U.S. 

'They're coming from Asia,' Lopez Obrador said of merchandise landing in stores. 

'Couldn't we produce in America what we consume? That's what we're asking. Of course we could,' he said.

The White House has also said improving supply chains and have critical items produced by friendly nearby countries is a discussion issue for the summit.

The U.S. requested $2 billion in foreign assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean for fiscal 2022, which would have been the largest allocation in a decade.

The U.S. has long topped the list of providers of foreign aid in dollar terms – but lags other developed nations in terms of the size of its own economy. 

Mexico's economy, which is closely tied to exports to the U.S., has been suffering during the pandemic and economic slowdown, even as Lopez Obrador worked to boost wages here. The country is experiencing slow growth. 

According to a White House readout of the meeting, the two men 'reviewed progress towards their ambitious climate commitments, including achieving the emissions targets established in their nationally determined contributions and reaching the goals Mexico announced at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt in November.'

They also 'reaffirmed their commitment to implement innovative approaches to address irregular migration,' and Biden 'discussed the recent announcement of additional enforcement actions, coupled with expanded pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans in addressing irregular migration. President Biden and President López Obrador also reaffirmed their commitment to address the root causes of migration.'

The two leaders spoke at the top of a meeting Monday after the White House indicated that a plan to take in 30,000 additional legal migrants each month wasn't a 'fixed number.' That came after the Mexican president signaled his country might be willing to take more border crossers than announced previously that the US plans to send back.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke to reporters Monday after the Biden Administration announced a plan to accept 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti who apply for asylum online.

'We are in the early days of the implementation of that, and we will see how that goes and then make determinations about where to take the next step. So I don't think we have a fixed number in mind,' White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters from the president's luxury hotel in Mexico City, hours after Biden landed here.

He was asked about the Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's own statement earlier that Mexico might take more than 30,000 migrants from the U.S. than previously indicated.

'We don't want to anticipate things, but this is part of what we are going to talk about at the summit,' López Obrador said. 'We support this type of measures, to give people options, alternatives," he continued, adding that 'the numbers may be increased.'

For his part, Sullivan said the numbers, announced by the White House last week, had been an 'iterative process.'

The concept is to have the U.S. encourage people from the countries to apply for asylum online, while those who appear at the southern border would be sent back.

He spoke of how the administration began the program for those fleeing oppression in Venezuala, then extended it to Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians.

Biden landed Sunday at at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, a pet project of the president, although it has few flights and had issues with running water.

That subjected Biden, who is accustomed to zipping through downtown areas, to a nearly hour-long ride to his hotel. But he was accompanied by the president for the hour-long ride in 'the Beast,' Biden's presidential limo. 

That constituted Biden's biggest chunk of diplomacy yet. He doesn't have any public events until after 4 pm local time, although he was to get his presidential daily brief.

Sullivan indicated the limo ride was useful, but wouldn't disclose details.

'Yesterday, he had the opportunity to ride with President Lopez Obrador from the airport back into town, which gave them the chance to just have a one on one chat. Kind of how they're seeing the world right now – what's on their minds. I think they both got a lot out of it,' he said.

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