Biden Meets With Mexican Pres. Ahead of 'Three Amigos' Summit

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Facts

  • US Pres. Joe Biden met with Mexican Pres. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Monday ahead of Tuesday's 10th North American Leaders' Summit, informally called the “Three Amigos” summit.
  • The conference — last held in Washington DC in 2021— will take place in Mexico City and include Biden, AMLO, and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
  • The three leaders are expected to discuss guns, drugs, and migration, as well as strategies for reducing the continent’s dependence on China for crucial goods and supplies.
  • The Biden admin. wants to see Mexico crackdown on drug cartels that have flooded the US with fentanyl, killing an estimated 72K people in 2021. Meanwhile, Mexico is dealing with a surge in gun-related homicides and is pressing the US to stop smugglers from moving illegal firearms into the country.
  • In the lead-up to the summit, Biden announced a major border policy shift that will result in the US sending 30K migrants from four countries back across the border to Mexico per month.
  • Ahead of Biden’s arrival, Mexican authorities arrested the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, allegedly a major fentanyl trafficker, on Thursday.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, NBC, Associated Press, and Washington Post.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Politico. The three nations have an ambitious agenda that will focus on strengthening ties between the countries. Although there are tensions over border security, trade, and other issues, in a display of unification, the leaders have shown themselves open to negotiation, paving the way to what will likely be incremental and consistent changes. This summit has the potential to be largely successful.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The Washington Post. While the three leaders may have lofty goals for the summit and North American relations, they're too preoccupied with their own domestic political agendas to achieve anything significant. This chaotic, out-of-synch dynamic will likely cause tensions, with the true mark of success being if all so-called "Three Amigos" leave the meeting politically unscathed.