Mexican president knocks US for focusing on Ukraine aid while Central American projects stall

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday complained about the U.S. fast-tracking aid to Ukraine amid a devastating war with Russia, while stalling on funding for two Central American projects proposed by the Mexican government.

“They just authorized resources to Ukraine, and that’s fine because it’s their policy to protect Ukraine, that’s what they decided,” said López Obrador at his daily press conference.

“But that was approved by the U.S. Congress in I think two days,” he added. “And the support for the Central American brothers has been [waiting] for nearly four years and it hasn’t been approved.”

President Biden last week announced an $800 million military aid package to Ukraine, where its president has said some cities have been reduced to ash, and several reports of shelters harboring women and children being targeted have emerged in recent weeks. The U.S. has also spent weeks warning that Russia President Vladimir Putin could use chemical weapons against Ukrainians.

“I saw what was approved for Ukraine; it was an amount much larger than what is being needed to support the poor peoples of Central America and the Caribbean,” said López Obrador.

López Obrador has largely based his government on a series of personal projects, including a new petroleum refinery, a new airport for Mexico City and a touristic railroad in the country’s Southeast.

Among his personal proposals are two regional development projects, “Sembrando vida” and “Jóvenes construyendo el futuro” – “Sowing Life” and “Youth Building the Future” – which the López Obrador administration has aimed to export to Central America.

In 2021, the United States sent about $560 million in foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department.

López Obrador blamed bureaucracy in the United States for the lack of aid, while characterizing the lack of immigration reform as an unfulfilled commitment.

The Mexican president said he had brought up those issues in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week but maintained that the bilateral relationship is “very good.”

“We discussed the migration issue [with Mayorkas] insisting that there has to be an investment and that they have to support it in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,” said López Obrador.

“We are proposing the expansion of the Sowing Life and Youth Building the Future programs. We are already helping, but of course we don’t have enough resources,” he added, saying that he wants to see an investment.

López Obrador also grumbled about the slow pace of immigration reform in Congress, a traditionally sticky issue in U.S. politics.

“[Mayorkas and I] talked about that and it’s not just about creating jobs in Central America, but the possibility of obtaining temporary [U.S.] work visas, order migratory flows, really change the migratory policy that’s been implemented in the U.S. for a long time,” he said.

“And to approve — that’s been in the U.S. Congress for a long time, to regularize the situation of the Mexicans who live and work honorably in the United States, because that’s a commitment that was made some time ago and hasn’t been fulfilled,” said López Obrador.