Alonso Urrutia and Emir Olivares
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday December 15, 2022, p. 5
The proposal to create an alliance to take advantage of the continent’s resources stems from the need to reverse inequality in the region and fight for America to produce what it consumes, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated yesterday, explaining the position that will lead to the North American Leaders Summit.
If there are job opportunities, if there is well-being in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, there is a possibility of ordering the migratory flow
, the president said in his morning conference on Wednesday. Otherwise, he added, if the region continues to be abandoned, irregular migration and risk to the lives of millions of people living in the hemisphere will persist.
The summit is scheduled to take place in Mexico City in the second week of next January, according to previous announcements by the president. In addition to López Obrador, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, will participate.
Asked about his vision of regional development, he ratified his idea of promoting an import substitution policy to reduce dependence on Asia and especially on China.
If these imports are replaced, imagine how much investment, how much growth, how much employment and how much well-being. All the favorable conditions exist to achieve this. And that must consider not only the integration of North America, but of the entire continent, and America becomes the strongest economic and commercial continent in the world, because it has a lot of potential.
he added.
Turn in regional politics
The president warned that while in China they are already planning towards the year 2040 or 2050, here they are still thinking about the next election. However, he stressed that achieving this goal means abandoning policies that, for example, still consider medieval-style sanctions against Cuba. He said that the coercive measures of the United States against the island were promoted in another historical context and their fundamental effect is against the Cuban people, not against the government.
López Obrador underscored the point: What danger is there that we can have a relationship of respect? What danger does Cuba mean for the United States? What danger does Venezuela mean for the United States? What danger does Colombia mean for the United States?, None
.
Only through this continental integration will it be possible to stop the growth of migratory flows, on the basis of abandoning that vision of manifest Destiny
or the Monroe Doctrine, he pointed out, referring to the hegemonic positions of the United States that emerged in the 19th century.
If there is economic growth, job opportunities, the causes of migration will be reduced, López Obrador said. In that case there can be an orderly migration, with temporary work visas. This would allow regional development with a scheme similar to the Alliance for Progress, he added, citing another US policy, in this case from the 1960s.
