Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s president-elect, gestures to supporters in Mexico City on Sunday, the day he won a landslide victory. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/2153494/mexicos-president-elect-offers-reduce-us-migration-exchange-aid Americas
Mexico’s president-elect offers to reduce US migration in exchange for aid
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made the offer when he spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump
Mexico's next president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, addresses supporters in Mexico City on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that he had spoken with US President Donald Trump by phone and offered to reduce US-bound migration in exchange for American assistance.
“I proposed exploring a universal deal (involving) development projects that would create jobs in Mexico and, by doing so, reduce migration and improve security,” Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. “The tone was respectful and our teams will be holding talks.”
For his part, Trump said he had a “great talk” with Lopez Obrador, adding that he was hopeful for the future of the two countries’ relationship.
“I just spoke with the president-elect of Mexico,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think the relationship is going to be a very good one. We had a great talk.”
Ties between the US and Mexico have been strained in recent times by the Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration. But Trump said a change in leadership might make a difference.
“I think he is going to try and help us with the border,” he said.
Lopez Obrador, 64, a former mayor of Mexico City, will be the nation’s first leftist leader in decades.
In his acceptance speech Sunday night, he said: “The state will cease to be a committee at the service of a minority and will represent all Mexicans, rich and poor, those who live in the country and in the city, migrants, believers and nonbelievers, to people of all philosophies and sexual preferences.”