浪花直播

President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 visit to Washington occurred at a vital moment for the US-Mexico bilateral relationship. Challenges and opportunities regarding migration, security, nearshoring, trade, energy and other important issues continue to be at the forefront of the bilateral agenda.

On Thursday, July 14th the Mexico Institute welcomed Ambassador Ken Salazar for a discussion on the state of the US-Mexico relationship and the Biden Administration鈥檚 plan to further strengthen collaboration between both countries.

Selected Quotes

Ken Salazar

鈥淣o two neighbors can really resolve their challenges or define their future unless there鈥檚 communication. For many years the dialogues have died - on security, on migration, on economics. We鈥檝e resurrected those under the leadership of President Biden and his team.鈥� 

鈥淗uman smuggling networks have come to profit from the disorder of the migration laws and system that we have allowed to be created because there has been a lack of courage to address the issues of migration. So where are we today? Well, we take you to the Summit of the Americas. President Biden announced there the declaration that we have to deal with this issue through a regional framework. You can鈥檛 address these unprecedented flows of migrants simply by doing the same old song and dance of the politics and division that have bedeviled this country for the last 40 years. You have to move beyond that.鈥�

鈥淢exico has a history of corruption, very deep-seated corruption, that has transcended decades and administrations. There鈥檚 corruption that鈥檚 at the root of many of the problems that we鈥檙e seeing all across Latin America - Central America and Mexico. At the highest levels, there鈥檚 a commitment to root out corruption, because unless you root out corruption, you鈥檙e not going to be able to enshrine the democratic values that are set forth in the first paragraph of this joint declaration. You cannot have a functioning democracy, or fair and free elections, or respect for human rights, or support for freedom of the press, unless you deal with the fundamental issue of corruption.鈥� 

鈥淪ome people ask me how I feel about [the US-Mexico] relationship at this point in time. I鈥檓 determined and optimistic, because there鈥檚 only one way to go. It鈥檚 like a family, we鈥檙e neighbors鈥�130 million that side, 300+ million this side. We gotta figure it out, and we have not done a very good job, frankly, in the past. Not in the 90s, not in the last decade, not in the prior administration, so this blueprint [the joint declaration between President Biden and President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador], in my view, really is a historic one.鈥�