Mexican president to boost measures aimed at curbing migration

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during his daily news conference, in Acapulco, Mexico December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his government plans to reinforce measures aimed at containing migration as he seeks to assist the United States in dealing with record numbers of people trying to reach the U.S. border.

Lopez Obrador’s comments come a day after he spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden, during which both agreed that more enforcement was needed at the border between their countries, as record numbers of migrants disrupt border trade.

Top U.S. officials are set to visit Mexico next Wednesday to follow up on the call, Lopez Obrador said.

“What was agreed is that we keep working together,” Lopez Obrador told a regular press conference. “We have a proposal to strengthen our plans, what we’ve been doing.”

Lopez Obrador said he would step up efforts on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, while also seeking agreements to manage higher numbers of Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Ecuadoreans fleeing poverty, crime and conflict.

“We are not only seeking accords with the United States,” Lopez Obrador said, saying his government was looking to reach agreements with countries, including Venezuela.

He also reiterated that he would continue to call for talks between the U.S. and Cuba, which has been under an American economic embargo for decades, and noted talks on easing U.S. sanctions on Venezuela were “progressing.”

The number of migrants crossing the perilous Darien Gap into Central America has topped half a million this year, double last year’s record figures.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Sarah Morland and Jonathan Oatis)