Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will meet with his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, in Washington DC, today. The meeting comes after AMLO skipped last month’s Summit of the Americas, and amid rising concerns over migration, trade and the flow of fentanyl across the two countries’ border, reports the Washington Post.

Migration is a key issue, Mexico is a transit country for people attempting to reach the U.S. from Central America, and has again become a source of migrants who travel at significant risk, reports El País.

AMLO said he would urge Biden to allow more legal immigration, which he says would help curb inflation, in addition to combating illicit migration (Bloomberg) “López Obrador has supported work visas in the past, and Mexican immigrants in the United States play a really critical role amid his austerity-focused economy because of the record-breaking remittances they’ve sent to families back home since the start of the pandemic,” notes AS/COA.

According to the White House, the US and Mexico plan to launch a bilateral working group on labor migration pathways and worker protections, and “expand our diplomatic coordination on migration issues throughout the region,” following the meeting. (CNN)

But several U.S. goals for Mexico run against AMLO’s agenda, reports the Associated Press. The U.S. wants AMLO to reduce Mexican dependance on fossil fuels and his campaign to favor Mexico’s state-owned electricity utility. Washington has filed several complaints under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement pushing Mexico to enforce environmental laws and rules guaranteeing trade union rights.

López Obrador also has angrily rejected any U.S. criticism of the killings of journalists in Mexico or his own efforts to weaken checks and balances in Mexico’s government.

El Salvador

• Images and videos published on social media ratify journalistic revelations that the senior leader of MS-13 was illegally freed last year by the government of El Salvador despite 40 years remaining on his criminal sentence and a U.S. extradition request. (El Faro)
  

Haiti

• Gun battles between rival gangs have killed more than 50 people since Friday in Cite Soleil, near Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Shootouts between gangs in the impoverished suburb have also left more than 100 people wounded, according to Cite Soleil Mayor Joel Janeus. (Reuters)
  

Peru

• Indigenous leaders in the Peruvian Amazon are again facing threats of violence after coca eradication operations in their area. Multiple killings in Ucayali and Huánuco, in central Peru, are a stark warning of the risks faced by those opposing drug trafficking in the Amazon, reports InSight Crime.
  

Mexico

• Recent violent episodes in Mexico have underscored how respect from certain local criminals towards the church has gradually been erased, reports InSight Crime.
  

Guatemala

• Missteps in connecting with Indigenous communities factored into the Guatemala’s low vaccination rate, reports Nature.
  
  

Jordana Timerman/Latin America Daily Briefing
http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot