Mexico's AMLO Finally Congratulated Biden On His Election Victory

MEXICO CITY — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador finally congratulated U.S President-elect Joseph Biden on his win in the 2020 election, becoming one of the last world leaders to recognize his victory. 

Even after it became clear that Biden had won in early November, López Obrador refused to congratulate him until, he said, “all legal issues” were resolved. That posture generated skepticism and snickers from many U.S. lawmakers, and raised concerns that it would damage relations between the two countries.

But on Monday December 14, after the Electoral College affirmed Biden’s victory, López Obrador sent Biden a one-page letter recognizing his win. The Mexican president highlighted two issues that have dominated the countries’ bilateral relations: migration and the United States’s perceived overreach into Mexican affairs, especially security. How Biden proceeds on both fronts will have a huge impact on Mexico.  

López Obrador forged a delicate balance with U.S. President Donald Trump, avoiding conflict with or criticism of him even in the face of bullying and disparaging remarks. Now, the Mexican president has to develop a relationship with a new leader who has a markedly calmer temperament but whose policies pose a new set of challenges to López Obrador’s goals. 

Biden’s “position of supporting Mexico’s and the world’s migrants” will further “the development and well-being of the communities in southeastern Mexico and the countries of Central America,” López Obrador wrote to President-elect Biden.

“I believe that, by taking this approach, no one will be forced to leave their country and they will be able to live, work and be happy with their family, among their own people and with their culture. This is how we will be able to craft the definitive solution to the flow of migrants from and through Mexico to the United States.”

Such an approach would mark a radical shift for Mexico and the United States. Trump essentially bullied Mexico into serving as its militarized arm for stopping Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S. by passing through Mexico, the majority of them from countries such as Honduras and El Salvador. 

López Obrador also tacitly consented to the creation of tent camps along the border for asylum seekers waiting for their immigration hearings in the U.S.  

Biden has signalled that he will rescind many of Trump’s immigration policies, which could, ironically, pose a problem for López Obrador. If perceived as a green light for those waiting in countries who wish to leave, it could trigger another wave of asylum seekers traversing Mexico en route to the U.S. 

But Biden’s presidency also opens the door for López Obrador to fulfill his long-held desire for a $30 billion “Marshall Plan” for Central America. The name is a reference to the U.S. plan after World War II that pumped around $13 billion into European nations reeling from the war. López Obrador similarly wants to spur economic development and job creation in southern Mexico and Central America. 

In his letter to Biden, López Obrador also made an oblique reference to simmering tensions over U.S. prosecutions of top-ranking Mexican officials.  

“We are certain with you as President of the United States, it will be possible to continue implementing the basic principles of foreign policy set forth in our Constitution, especially those of non-intervention and the self-determination of peoples,” said the Mexican president in his letter.

The U.S. arrest in October of former Mexican defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda infuriated top Mexican officials, who had been given no notice of the arrest and saw it as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. López Obrador’s government negotiated the release and return of Cienfuegos, in part by threatening to kick the U.S’s DEA out of Mexico. All charges against him in the United States were dropped, and Mexico is yet to file charges against Cienfuegos at home.

A day after López Obrador recognized Biden’s win, Mexico’s lower house voted in favor of measures proposed by his government that are expected to sharply limit DEA operations in the United States.

While Biden’s victory was never in doubt — despite unfounded lawsuits claiming election fraud  — López Obrador is particularly sensitive to the issue of fraud. He long cried foul about his controversial loss in the 2006 Mexican presidential election that declared Felipe Calderón the winner by less than a percentage point.

As of Tuesday morning, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was the only major world leader yet to congratulate Biden.