The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known by his initials as AMLO, may be on his way out of the presidency due to Mexican law, but not before he tries to openly blackmail the Biden administration in regards to the southern border.

During an interview on “60 Minutes” which aired on Sunday evening, AMLO got very explicit on what he wants in exchange for slowing down the flow of illegal migrants at the American southern border – which, of course, is the northern border of Mexico. He’s got a laundry list of demands – and if they don’t get met, well, those illegal migrants are just going to keep showing up at the border. Wouldn’t it be BETTER if the United States just did what AMLO wants – like giving amnesty to law-abiding Mexicans already in the United States, and handing over billions of dollars? Oh, and end sanctions on Venezuela and end the embargo on Cuba while you’re at it.

The president of Mexico’s proposal for stemming immigration includes:

– The U.S. commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
-Lift sanctions on Venezuela
-End the Cuban embargo
-Legalize law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/rmJ1j78SxQ

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 24, 2024

Sharyn Alfonsi: Everybody thinks you have the power in this moment to slow down migration. Do you plan to?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We do and want to continue doing it, but we do want for the root causes to be attended to, for them to be seriously looked at.

With the ear of the White House – President López Obrador proposed his fix- that the United States commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo and legalize millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.

Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do the things that you said need to be done, then what?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): The flow of migrants… will continue.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics have said what you’re doing, what you’re asking for to help secure the border is diplomatic blackmail. What do you say?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I am speaking frankly, we have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think.

Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do those things, will you continue to help to secure the border?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes, because our relationship is very important. It is fundamental.

If AMLO says he’s going to help secure the border anyway, even if the United States doesn’t do any of those things, then why the demands? Because he knows the Biden adminstration is weak on the southern border, that’s why. Everyone can see the scenes at the border. Every time something like the border storming incident from March 21st happens, it is a ready-made commercial for the Trump campaign.

This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today

We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie

— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) March 21, 2024

AMLO, for his part, says he also has a good relationship with Donald Trump, but that Trump would never build a wall. He also vowed that the “Remain in Mexico” policy would never make a comeback, and complained about Speaker Mike Johnson pushing Joe Biden to reinstate that policy.

Sharyn Alfonsi: President Trump is saying he wants to build a wall again.

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): On the campaign.

Sharyn Alfonsi: But you don’t think he’d actually do it?

President López Obrador (in Spanish) No, no..

Sharyn Alfonsi: Because? Because he needs Mexico.

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because we understood each other very well. We signed an economic, a commercial agreement that has been favorable for both peoples, for both nations. He knows it. And President Biden, the same.

Sharyn Alfonsi: But what about the people that’ll say, “Oh. But the wall works”?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It doesn’t work!

Why does AMLO say that walls won’t work? Tunnels.

And President López Obrador says he told that to then-President Trump during a phone call. They were supposed to be discussing the pandemic.

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It was an agreement not to speak about the wall because we were not going to agree.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And then you talked about it.

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): That was the only time. And I told him, “I am going to send you, Mr. President, some videos of tunnels from Tijuana up to San Diego, that passed right under U.S. Customs.” He stayed quiet, and then he started laughing and told me “I can’t win with you.”

So, because the cartels have dug tunnels, the United States shouldn’t bother building a wall. (Why we have not taken a page from Egypt’s border or Israel’s border with Gaza and dug deep enough to block the tunnels is beyond me.) And speaking of the cartels, AMLO has decided that they’re not his problem. It’s the United States’s problem for consuming drugs in the first place. You see, it’s okay to have cartel violence because Mexicans aren’t consuming the drugs being trafficked, or something. And AMLO, as the president of Mexico, isn’t going to lower himself to negotiate with criminal cartels.

According to México Evalúa, a Mexican think tank, about 5% of the country’s homicides are prosecuted. And a study last year reported cartels have expanded their reach, employing an estimated 175,000 people to extort businesses and traffic migrants and drugs into the U.S.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Can you reach the cartel and say, “Knock it off?”

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no. What you have to do with the criminals is apply the law. But I’m not going to establish contact, communication with a criminal, the President of Mexico.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you saying you don’t have to reach out to them or communicate with them?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no, because you cannot negotiate with criminals.

The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on 60 Minutes:

"Do you know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we celebrate our customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.” pic.twitter.com/3c6b85tCpR

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) March 25, 2024

Sharyn Alfonsi: So, why the violence, then, in Mexico?

President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because drug trafficking exists, but not the consumption.

So, the Biden administration is supposed to cough up billions for Latin America and the Caribbean (on top of the billions that we have already spent and keep sending), let AMLO dictate our policy regarding Cuba and Venezuela (ironic after his bitching about Speaker Johnson’s comments, hmmm?), and offer mass amnesty for illegal Mexican residents in the United States. And if Joe Biden doesn’t comply, then those migrants are just going to keep finding their way to the U.S.-Mexico border and walking on over to overload the system. AMLO is basically looking at the Biden administration and doing his best protection racket blackmail – “Nice border you have there, would be a shame if those migrants kept coming and you lost the election, am I right?” All while he ignores the cartels and the violence within his own country.

AMLO does have a chosen successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, who is the current mayor of Mexico City, but who is apparently not as personally popular as the current president.

Sheinbaum is largely seen as a continuation of López Obrador, leading in recent polls by a healthy margin. She has closely tethered herself to her mentor, appearing next to him in campaign billboards and mirroring his tone and political platforms.

“Much has changed in these six years,” Sheinbaum said in her official campaign launch, ticking off dozens of López Obrador’s accomplishments. “I ask you, do you feel the transformation in the country? … We are going to continue with that transformation.”

López Obrador, too, has thrown his support behind Sheinbaum, to the point where electoral authorities asked the politician to refrain from commenting on the election. What remains to be seen is if he will continue to wield power in the incoming government if Sheinbaum wins. He has said he will retire from politics.

The odds that Sheinbaum will stand up to the cartels is probably zero as well, which means that the violence within the country will continue, despite the claims of “transformation.” Will AMLO continue to be the proverbial power behind the throne? How about we lock down the southern border to illegal migration and not worry about it?

If the Biden administration caves to this blackmail, we are in such deep trouble. But given the current state of the border, and the complete dereliction of duty by the administration when it comes to national security on the border, I have zero confidence that the Biden team won’t find a way to cave to AMLO and call it a diplomatic triumph.

Featured image: President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador by EneasMx via Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED