MEXICO CITY (AFP) -  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to rethink his country’s trade embargo against Cuba and sanctions policy against Venezuela, arguing that the punitive measures have a direct impact on citizens and fuel mass migration.
At her regular press conference, Sheinbaum said she made the request when she spoke with Trump on the phone, with immigration being a main topic.
The Mexican president made several proposals, including “ending the blockades against Cuba and Venezuela” because they cause the people to suffer and cause phenomena like migration.
She recommended the strategy Mexico’s government used to tackle mass migration, saying it has led to a decline in migrants heading north.
The comprehensive strategy aims to address the root causes of migration, such as a lack of jobs and opportunities at home, by investing in development programs in countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, said Sheinbaum.
The phone call came a day after Sheinbaum sent a letter to Trump, responding to his threats to impose a 25-percent tariff on Mexican imports and carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants once he takes office in January 2025.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hoped President-elect Donald Trump would rethink his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could “screw up” relationships with close allies.
“I hope he rethinks it. I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending the Thanksgiving Day holiday with his family.
“We have an unusual situation in America - we’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies: Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.”
Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs and migrants crossing the border, in a move that would appear to violate the US-Mexico-Canada free-trade deal.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she did not specifically discuss tariffs in a call she held with Trump on Wednesday, adding the two had agreed there would be good relations between the two nations.
Following the call, Trump said Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
Sheinbaum, however, said she had laid out a strategy that “attended to” migrants before they reached the U.S. border.
Biden, who met with Trump at the White House earlier this month, reiterated that he wanted the transition between his outgoing administration and the president-elect’s incoming one to go smoothly.
“And all the talk about what he’s going to do or not do, I think there may be a little bit of internal reckoning on his ... part,” Biden said.