The US response to the genuine Pan-American summit plan is missing

Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday June 3, 2022, p. 4

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is still waiting for the White House to respond to his proposal not to exclude any country in the hemisphere, although for the first time he outlined a slight possibility of attending the forum.

No hurry!, he pointed out yesterday during his press conference before a new question about the meeting, scheduled for June 6 to 10 in Los Angeles, although the work between leaders will start on Wednesday. And he reiterated his position that the 35 countries of the continent be summoned.

We are going to wait for the answer to what we are proposing, but there is no rush. We are very close (distance), there are several flights to Tijuana and from there on the highway to Los Angeles (about three hours by land) and it is until next week. It’s Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It ends Friday afternoon-night and I would stay there and return until Saturday, if I gohe exposed.

He considered that his American counterpart Joe Biden he is a good ruler and highlighted the historical relations of friendship and collaboration not only between the governments of both countries, but also between their peoples.

The issue was raised again in the morning after the director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere in Washington, Juan González, stated that Biden personally want that López Obrador attend the Summit.

“Yesterday a United States official, very close to President Biden, Juan González, spoke that the lists are not yet finished or that some invitations need to be distributed. Let’s wait. The relationship with the government of President Biden, with his collaborators, is very good (…) They are people who have experience, we have a very good relationship, we like each other, they respect us, we respect them and we are waiting for a decision to be made ” , he pointed.

Although he does not travel to the summit, he reaffirmed that Mexico will be present, represented by the chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard; but he did not talk about the agenda that his administration will bring to the debates.

Hours later, the head of the Mexican Executive had a remote conversation with the White House climate manager, John Kerry.

We chat about renewable energy and the environment with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. We made commitments that we will announce virtually on June 17 at the Forum of the Major Economies on Energy and Climate ChangeLópez Obrador reported on Twitter.

During that talk, the president commented that Mexico is one of the nations that has a higher percentage of clean energy than others, in particular those with the best economies on a global scale, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in an interview upon leaving the National Palace.

The man from Tabasco told Kerry two relevant points: his project to capture gas at Pemex production plants, with the aim of reducing polluting emissions; and that 38.2 percent of the electricity produced by the CFE is cleanEbrard noted.