Mexico brings major leverage to negotiations, as Biden needs Mexican help to fix a problem that is driving down his poll numbers, said three U.S. officials.

… in late December, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ask for greater assistance. Those conversations were “preliminary,” the officials said, and did not result in hard promises from either side.

In a press conference on Friday, López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries, suspend the U.S. blockade of Cuba, remove all sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240110130556/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/biden-asks-mexico-help-stop-record-surge-migrants-rcna132711

  • qooqie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    10 months ago

    Anyone know how the cartels are making their money with most of America having legalized weed? Did they just diversify their portfolio a long time ago?

    • TragicNotCute@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      10 months ago

      Yes. They are involved in a ton of industries, legal and illegal. For example, if you have eaten an avacado recently, there’s an excellent chance it’s a conflict avacado with money being paid to the cartel by farmers for “protection”.

      “It’s not only avocados. Mexican organised crime has long mutated away from ‘just’ drugs trafficking,” he said. “Today, the model is this: you control a given territory, and within in it you exploit whichever commodity is locally available. That includes avocados, but also limes, papayas, strawberries, illegal logging and mining, to name but a few.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/30/are-mexican-avocados-the-worlds-new-conflict-commodity

    • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
      15·
      10 months ago

      Motherjones did an article at least 10 years ago which described how the DEA, etc focussing on MJ drove the cartels towards cocaine, meth, heroin, etc. Obviously this strategy increased criminality, morbidity, and mortality in the US, which trend has continued to this day. :-(

    • PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyiEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      Think of them as a more prolific mafia. Entertainment venues, restaurants, hotels, etc. will all likely be partially owned or pay protection to a cartel or local lord. When I was in a particular town, everyone in the area knew that they owed most of their entirely legal livelihood to the local drug lord. He just owned that much of the city.

      Plus the other things folks have said, like other drugs and industries.