The top of symbols

The first summit of North American leaders in five years was filled with symbols. In this piece, all eyes were on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who arrived in Washington with anticipation and with a certain curiosity, due to his ethnocentric view of Mexico, politics and life. The foreign press had been reflecting on the eve of how he isolates himself from the world and at the same time how he likes to presume that the ideas and agreements the world makes in international conclaves were inspired by what he launched. in Mexico. . However, it was an enigma how he would fare against Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau, even if at the end of the day in the US capital he really didn’t disappoint. His impromptu public speeches were repetitive, erratic and innocuous.

López Obrador did not know, because he did not want or was not convinced of anything else, to enjoy the trip to Washington. He could have made it to the US capital on Tuesday evening after inaugurating the Tianguis Turístico in Mérida, but since he does not use official planes, he lost the whole day as he had to leave Cancun, which has no direct flights. It is not known how he left or where he arrived, but as he flew, the Canadian Prime Minister was on Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers about the negative impact some protectionist measures promoted by Biden would have.

Trudeau is the one López Obrador first spoke to in a bilateral meeting, which began with a welcome speech at the Mexico City Cultural Center in Washington, which did not speak of the present but of the past, which did not was not referring to issues that both face the United States and align themselves, albeit rhetorically, against actions taken by Biden that affect North American integration. Trudeau wasted no time early, voicing his objections to Biden’s proposed tax credits for unions and consumers to boost production of electric cars.

López Obrador showed him the murals in the Cultural Center and spoke about Lázaro Cárdenas and Benito Juárez. On contentious issues of importance to both nations, not a word. Trudeau’s way of acting in Washington has led Biden to praise the bilateral relationship with Canada and to publicly seek to iron out the rough edges. When he met López Obrador, as the Mexican president was again talking about Juárez, Cárdenas and historically talking about Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leaving no room for translation, Biden threw up his socks and wrote the notes for ‘other people.

The two most important photographs from that moment in the Oval Office were where López Obrador looked leaning in a hard chair with his hands clasped, and Biden had taken him by the knee for a moment. Most telling of the meeting with the Canadians is when Mexico’s Ambassador to Ottawa, Juan José Gómez Camacho, appears at the table to the president’s left, as for days he briefed the Canadian press on what appeared to be the one thing, or the most important thing on which the two have agreed bilaterally: to share their experiences on how to recover and restore the relationship with indigenous peoples.

For the Canadian press, Trudeau’s meeting with López Obrador was inconsequential, except in times when both countries were affected by Biden’s policies, about which López Obrador was silent. On other matters he spoke, even though he made mistakes. One was to name Biden as the US president who has done the most for migrants, in support of his bill, which has yet to be passed, to regularize 11 million immigrants, including 5 millions of Mexicans. You don’t know that President Ronald Reagan succeeded in pushing through Congress the so-called Simpson-Mazzoli law in 1986, which sought to grant amnesty to 5 million immigrants, although in the end only 3 approximately million were eligible.

The United States, Canada and Mexico have proven to be asymmetric overall. In impositions, such as the summit agenda adapted to the White House, in the personality and manner of acting of its leaders, and in its density and the defense of interests. Trudeau traveled to Washington to seek the benefit of Canadian businesses and citizens, against Biden, who seeks protection of businesses, unions and political clients, in conflict with the Prime Minister. López Obrador should have made the same defense as Trudeau because the Democratic protectionist threats are the same, but he got lost in the short story and conceptual confusion.

For example, economic integration, where you want the United States to pull the economies of Mexico and Latin America. Regarding its regional visualization, nor in the discursive discourse, they paid attention to it. Latin America only existed for Mexico and Canada to distribute the anti-covid vaccines that the United States gives them in the subcontinent. Central America played only a secondary role when they agreed to seek employment opportunities for an unknown number of them, but in all three countries, not just in the United States as López wanted. Obrador, and to design productive investment plans, not planting trees. In this line, whoever asked for a locomotive to generate integration, was integrated into the policies designed by the White House.

All of this does not mean anything bad for Mexico, or for its president, or for the outcome of the summit. On the contrary. The meeting produced more concrete and immediate results than previous meetings, and it was the day after what White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki defined hours before the summit as the most important thing, to resume the level of commitment of each of the North American leaders, which had stagnated since 2016, during the black stage of Donald Trump’s presidency. The active involvement is not negative, although López Obrador, as far as we know, was just a mere passenger in the backseat and it is unclear how many commitments he will fulfill.

rrivapalacio@ejecentral.com.mx

twitter: @rivapa