Pompeo Arrives In Mexico at a Turbulent Time for Latin America
Pompeo Arrives In Mexico at a Turbulent Time for Latin America
"The Maduro regime is increasingly delegitimized and isolated," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth on some of the challenges the U.S. faces in regards to the Venezuelan crisis.
Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, is the highest-ranking official yet to meet with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO as he is popularly called, the president-elect of Mexico. The secretary arrived Friday in the country, alongside Kirstjen Nielsen, the Homeland Security chief ostensibly charged with building President Trump’s border wall. Pompeo’s arrival comes at a time when AMLO is seen as the left-wing, Latin American answer to Trump; it also comes as the Central American humanitarian situation, as well as the political collapse in Venezuela, threaten to vault the region from an afterthought in Washington to the front pages. In a sign of how seriously the administration is now taking the region, Senior Counselor Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a Trump favorite, are joining Pompeo and Nielsen.
Obrador takes over in December, an extremely lengthy transition period, as pointed out by the State Department Thursday. “The Mexican political transition is long in comparison to what we have here in the United States – about five months,” a senior U.S. State official briefing reporters said.
