… in late December, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ask for greater assistance. Those conversations were “preliminary,” the officials said, and did not result in hard promises from either side.

In a press conference on Friday, López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries, suspend the U.S. blockade of Cuba, remove all sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240110130556/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/biden-asks-mexico-help-stop-record-surge-migrants-rcna132711

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    We should literally be doing everything AMLO is asking for, regardless of this deal. I know the guy is a bit of a blowhard, but it’s good that Mexico actually has a leader that has policy goals that benefit Mexico and the rest of Latin America, rather than an American stooge.

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Anyone know how the cartels are making their money with most of America having legalized weed? Did they just diversify their portfolio a long time ago?

    • TragicNotCute@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yes. They are involved in a ton of industries, legal and illegal. For example, if you have eaten an avacado recently, there’s an excellent chance it’s a conflict avacado with money being paid to the cartel by farmers for “protection”.

      “It’s not only avocados. Mexican organised crime has long mutated away from ‘just’ drugs trafficking,” he said. “Today, the model is this: you control a given territory, and within in it you exploit whichever commodity is locally available. That includes avocados, but also limes, papayas, strawberries, illegal logging and mining, to name but a few.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/30/are-mexican-avocados-the-worlds-new-conflict-commodity

    • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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      10 months ago

      Motherjones did an article at least 10 years ago which described how the DEA, etc focussing on MJ drove the cartels towards cocaine, meth, heroin, etc. Obviously this strategy increased criminality, morbidity, and mortality in the US, which trend has continued to this day. :-(

    • PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi
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      10 months ago

      Think of them as a more prolific mafia. Entertainment venues, restaurants, hotels, etc. will all likely be partially owned or pay protection to a cartel or local lord. When I was in a particular town, everyone in the area knew that they owed most of their entirely legal livelihood to the local drug lord. He just owned that much of the city.

      Plus the other things folks have said, like other drugs and industries.

  • Gigan@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion

    Seems like extortion

    • Altofaltception@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Given how much of the current problems in those Latin American countries is because of US interference, this is a good start.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not really, most of those people are refugees. It’s a “we’ll help reduce the rate of refugees you get, but we need you to invest in reducing the rate of people that are refugees and treat the ones you have better” situation