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News > Mexico

Mexico, US Foreign Ministers Have 'Friendly Conversation'

  • Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington Sunday. Dec. 2, 2018

    Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington Sunday. Dec. 2, 2018 | Photo: Reuters

Published 3 December 2018
Opinion

Mexico's newly inaugurated Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, meets with Mike Pompeo in what Ebrard called a 'friendly conversation;' Pompeo has been mute.

The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with his newly inaugurated Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard Sunday night in Washington in what Ebrard tweeted was a “friendly conversation” between the two North American foreign ministry representatives. Pompeo didn't offer any tweets or any comments about the encounter on the Secretary of State website.

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Ebrar tweeted Sunday evening: "Just ended a dinner with Mike Pompeo. It was an amicable conversation, first look at the long-lasting understanding between Mexico and the United States. I appreciate his willingness and attitude toward the new administration of President Lopez Obrador.”

Ebrar is just starting his position as foreign minister under now President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) who was inaugurated on Saturday, Dec. 1 in a major and much-anticipated ceremony that took place in Mexico’s main plaza.

Meanwhile, at the country’s northern border city of Tijuana, the thousands of Central American Exodus members, are waiting to see if the new head of state, elected last July, can help them make headway into gaining access to the United States where the majority are seeking asylum.

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Five waves of the Exodus left out of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since Oct. 12, many making it to Mexico’s northern border — walking and hitchhiking — in just over a month. They made the arduous journey to escape overwhelming poverty, violence and climate change within their home countries, grinding on despite President Trump's calling them ‘invading’ criminals and in the face of major efforts by Mexico’s previous President Enrique Peña Nieto to deter their northward trek.

AMLO has said one of the first items on his agenda for his six-year term is to grant humanitarian and work visas to caravan members who he has welcomed in speeches over the past month. Over 2,000 humanitarian visas and a few hundred work visas have already been given to Exodus members since late October.

"Progressive and democratic governments respect migrants, respect the right that all human beings have to seek life, (that) is the main human right," AMLO said in a tweeted video.

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"The United States is a country that became a power with the work, effort, and intelligence of migrants," added Lopez Obrador.

After the asylum seekers reached Tijuana, they were met with a militarized border, rubber bullets and tear gas thrown by U.S. border patrol and security forces on Nov. 25, prompting even Peña Nieto’s foreign minister to call for an “exhaustive investigation” into the U.S. use of weapons on women and child caravan members at their shared border.

Exodus migrant Jorge Alberto Lobo, 21, from El Salvador, told Reuters: "I have a dream, I think we all bring it, to get to the other side, to the United States," he said, but quickly added that if he did not succeed, he would probably stay in Mexico and look for work.
 

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