The North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), border issues, immigration and security will head the discussion when President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top U.S. officials Friday.
The details were revealed at a press conference hosted by former Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who is expected to become Lopez Obrador’s foreign minister. He said the meeting will take place in a modest domicile in the capital’s Colonia Roma that currently houses the offices of the president-elect.
Ebrard said security at the house will be no different to that used by Lopez Obrador throughout his campaign. The candidate has deliberately eschewed bodyguards and has made it clear that he requires no preferential treatment while serving as president, despite the misgivings of many of his advisors. The U.S. officials, however, will travel with their own security team.
AMLO, as he is often referred to, has vowed to slash the ostentatious trappings of federal government. During his campaign he promised to turn the presidential mansion, Los Pinos, into a cultural center, reduce his salary (and those of other high-ranking officials) and sell the presidential plane, among other cost-cutting measures.
Accompanying Pompeo on the visit will be Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and top presidential adviser Jared Kushner. The quartet have planned a meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto prior to the encounter with the AMLO.
Lopez Obrador said the encounter will be an opportunity to generate agreements on the future development of the bilateral relationship and discuss how to create jobs and wellbeing.
He also said he hopes to talk with the U.S. officials about the causes of migration from Central American nations, which he stated were chiefly violence, lack of work opportunities and poverty.