A speech by the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, had great repercussion in the Latino/Hispanic community in the United States. In a speech given in San Antonio (Texas) at an event organized by the Latino defense association UnidosUS. According to the Guardian, she sought to praise the Latino community: “The diversity of this community – as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio, is their strength”. Her words had a huge backlash, both among progressive Latinos and Republicans, who reproduced them on a large scale to further wear down Democrats among the community.

Also according to The Guardian, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists challenged the First Lady by stating: “We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by several diasporas, cultures, and food traditions. Do not reduce us to stereotypes”. Republican Senators Marco Rubio (FL) and Ted Cruz (TX) took the opportunity to stock up on Democrats. Rubio, from Florida, changed his Twitter profile photo for a taco image, and Ted Cruz, from Texas, posted on the same platform: “Personally, I'm a chorizo, egg & cheese”. Republicans are excited to win the Latino vote after Congresswoman Mayra Flores won the traditional Democratic stronghold of South Texas. Note that those Republicans who cared about a silly comment like Jill Biden's, but were not bothered when, in 2015, Donald Trump called Mexicans “thugs, drug dealers and rapists”.

Despite the debate surrounding traditional Mexican food, relations between the United States and Mexico are extremely complex. At first, the problem of immigration, legal and illegal, stands out. The immigrant community from Mexico represents nearly 62% of all Latinos/Hispanics. In addition, there is a seasonal stream that moves to US crops at harvest time. Furthermore, the country is an illegal immigration route for several other groups from Central and South America. Add to this list the arid topic of drug trafficking and violence caused by street gangs in large cities, such as the “maras”. Finally, the economic issue since Mexico is part of the Free Trade Agreement “The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement” (USMCA). In 2020, the country was the second largest destination for US exports (14.6%), behind Canada (16%). The United States was the destination for 76.4% of Mexican exports, and Canada is second, with 3.8%.

In recent years, the bilateral presidential-level relationship between the US and Mexico has been quite controversial, particularly since the center-left Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador won the 2018 elections. Traditionally, Mexican presidents linked to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN) have always sought an alignment with the rulers of the United States. However, López Obrador, from the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), is taking a more autonomous stance.

In this regard, it is worth considering that the relationship with Donald Trump was much more friendly than one might suppose both because of the antagonistic ideological positions, because of Trump's aggressions against Mexicans and also because of the harsh criticism leveled against the US president during his election campaign in 2018. While López Obrador gains greater leeway for its internal agenda, it practically did not come into conflict with Trump, as it was the first government to ratify the USMCA treaty, on December 13, 2019, and did not create obstacles for the implementation of the migration policy of Trump known as “Remain in Mexico”, which forced asylum seekers in the United States to wait on Mexican soil for a hearing with US judges. Finally, López Obrador awaited the definition of the election results to congratulate Biden on his victory in 2020.

This friendly relationship could be seen in the exchange of pleasantries between the two presidents when López Obrador visited Trump in Washington on July 8, 2020. At that meeting, the Mexican president declared: “You didn't treat us like a colony, on the contrary, you honored our status as an independent nation. That's why I'm here. To express to the people of the United States that their president has behaved with us with kindness and respect”. On the other hand, Trump said that ties between Mexico and the United States have never been stronger and even praised the Mexicans: “They are people who work hard, they're amazing people, they're a huge percentage of entrepreneurs. They're very successful”, said Trump on Mexicans.

In theory, the arrival of Joe Biden to the White House could mean a positive leap in relations between both countries, but in general terms, foreign policy under the Democratic administration has shown to have a more “hawk” profile than the Donald Trump administration, especially about Latin American affairs, such as the continuation of the economic blockade against Cuba and the sanctions against the governments of Venezuela, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Considering that Lopez Obrador defends a greater role for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in opposition to the Organization of American States (OAS), created by the United States, regional issues are a point of friction between the government Mexican and the Biden administration.

An example of this friction occurred during the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles last June, when Lopez Obrador declined to attend the meeting. According to the newspaper El Economista. López Obrador stated, on June 6: “I am not going to attend the Summit, on my behalf Marcelo Ebrard, on behalf of the Government of Mexico, is going. I am not going because not all the countries of America are invited, and I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposing exclusion for centuries”. In this case, the Mexican president criticized the position of the United States in not inviting the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Obrador's position was followed by the presidents of Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and other 15 Caribbean nations.

Weeks after not going to Cúpula das Américas, López Obrador was received by Joe Biden at Casa Branca, on July 12, to discuss issues such as immigration, illegal arms, people and drug trafficking, border infrastructure, and measures to address the economic causes of immigration.

During the public part of the meeting at White House, the host opened the discussion as follows: “Mr. President — my friend, my partner — it’s good to have you back to the White House. Over the last year and a half, we’ve devoted our teams to whole-of-government efforts focused on rebuilding the solid framework of the U.S.-Mexico relations. As I told you from the beginning — and I mean it — I see, we see Mexico as an equal partner.  Our nations share close ties in family and friendship, and we’re united through our values and our history. And for me and my administration, the U.S.-Mexico relationship is vital to achieving our goals of everything from the fight against COVID-19, to continuing to grow our economies, to strengthening our partnerships and addressing migration as a shared hemispheric challenge”. 

López Obrador addressed the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party and emphasized the need for a more balanced relationship. He also rescued the relationships created during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, such as “The Good Neighbor Policy”, as a paradigm for the current relationship with the United States, since Roosevelt knew how to articulate with rulers of different hues, without excluding any from the prior: “In spite of our differences and also in spite of our grievances that are not really easy to forget with time or with good wishes — they’re not easy to forget.  However, on many occasions, we’ve been able to coincide and we’ve been able to work together as good friends and true allies. During President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, we were able to see a policy that we believe it was a very efficient and very fraternal policy. Those were other times.  However, we had circumstances that were quite similar to our existing circumstances.  And from those policies, we should be extracting good lessons, because history is the master of life. […] That’s why with great definition, determination, and aplomb, since the first 100 days of its administration, he launched a whirlpool of initiatives that changed the country and gave new hopes to its inhabitants. And throughout his administration, he also applied, he enforced a policy — a Good Neighbors policy. And this is something that was enforced and applied throughout the American continent”.

The practical results of the meeting can be extracted from the joint press release of the meeting which we summarize below:

Border infrastructure. Governments have committed to complete the upgrade of US-Mexico border infrastructure for projects along the 2,000-mile border. The joint effort seeks to align priorities, unite border communities and make the flow of commerce and people safer and more efficient. President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Act includes $3.4 billion to carry out 26 major construction and modernization projects at inland ports of entry on the northern and southern border. Mexico has committed to investing US$1.5 billion in border infrastructure between 2022 and 2024.

Climate Change. The United States and Mexico are committed to driving a business environment that promotes a greener and cleaner North America, recognizing the importance of investing in and supporting renewable energy sources. In addition, they were willing to fight methane emissions from oil and gas and other sectors, accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles, and deepen our efforts to seek nature-based solutions, enabling both countries to become global leaders in clean energy. and actions to combat climate change. In support of the Global Methane Pledge and Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway, Mexico and Pemex, in cooperation with the US, will develop an implementation plan to eliminate flaring and gas leakage in oil and gas extraction operations and identify projects priorities for investment.

Violence, Drugs and Human Trafficking. Through the Bicentennial Framework for Safety, Public Health and Safe Communities, both countries commit to working together to address key security issues affecting the bilateral relationship, including trafficking in fentanyl, weapons and human beings trying to cross the border. They also pledged to deepen cooperation to combat transnational criminal organizations that foment violence in both countries. We reaffirm the robust operational efforts among law enforcement agencies to address these paramount security efforts. We commit to establishing a US-Mexico operational task force to stop the flow of fentanyl into our countries.

Immigration. Building on the commitments made at the Summit of the Americas by twenty-one countries in the hemisphere pursuant to the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, both countries committed to take immediate and coordinated measures to manage the flows of migrants arriving in Mexico and the United States. They recognize that it is necessary to tackle the underlying causes of immigration, such as the underdevelopment of the countries of origin of the migratory flow, and for that they will accelerate and expand international cooperation programs focused on the most marginalized communities. At the same time, they will keep strong border enforcement policies, ensuring full protection of human rights. In addition, the countries committed to launching a bilateral working group on labor migration routes and worker protection. We will work to promote greater protections for workers as part of a labor mobility strategy for migrant workers seeking access through legal channels. Mexico and the United States will also convene a working group to strengthen our cross-border response to child migration.

As we can see, with the exception of Mexico's commitment to increase imports of milk, fertilizers, and animal feed, or even Biden's commitment to use funds from the Build Back Better project to modernize border infrastructure, the meeting did not bring tangible results to achieve other objectives, such as immigration, organized crime and climate change. On the one hand, Mexico may be willing to solve the problems listed in the joint communiqué, but it lacks the means to do so, especially when the country faces the violence of drug cartels and the Obrador government's own efforts to improve the infrastructure of the country. As for the United States, there is no lack of means, since they are the richest country in the world. In this case, the political will of the country's elites is lacking, because despite the repeated promises of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party bureaucracy, the performance of the Republican Party in Congress and the conservative majority in the Supreme Court block any substantive reform.

The speeches of supporting the development of the countries of Latin America, especially the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America, lack significant actions. The newly created Finance Development Corporation (DFC) that would support infrastructure investments in Latin America has not yet achieved its objectives. For this, it is enough to consult the active projects for the region to verify that very little is being done to change the economic landscape of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The Joe Biden administration is frustrating its constituents by its inability to deliver what they demanded, particularly the country's Hispanic/Latino population. The practical results in relation to climate change, expansion of social assistance, legalization of immigration etc., are meager. Meanwhile, a person qualified as the First Lady, Professor Doctor Jill Biden, tries to please the community with empty and, as in the case of the tacos, inappropriate praise. Time is running out for the November elections. As with the summit between Biden and Lopez Obrador, words abound and actions are scarce.