January 9, 2023
Dear President Biden:
Friends, friends of the United States Government delegation:
We are very pleased to have this bilateral meeting, to be with you, who have a link with us beyond the strategic, including the neighborhood. It is a fraternal relationship of friendship between our peoples.
Dear President Biden:
I am certain that you are a humanist and visionary ruler, and that there are excellent conditions to start a new policy of economic and social integration in our continent.
The trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States has proven to be a valuable instrument to consolidate our production processes, taking advantage of the great potential that the internal market of our region represents. However, in our Pacific ports the arrival of ships full of merchandise from Asia continues to grow. And the question we ask ourselves is the following:
Could we not produce in America what we consume? Of course. It is a matter of definition and joint planning of our future development.
Uniting and partnering in America is equivalent to consolidating the most important region in the world. The advantages are many; among others, we have a young and creative workforce, with technological development and a great wealth of natural resources; the distances between our countries allow us to save on transportation and there is sufficient demand in our markets.
America’s per capita consumption is $18,100 per year, while Asia’s is $4,400.
However, productive integration must have the support of public and private investment for the well-being of all the peoples of the Americas, without excluding anyone.
Let us remember that, on March 13, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced at the White House, before ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean, the plan known as the Alliance for Progress. At that time, the United States invested 10 billion dollars in 10 years, which at today’s prices would be 82 billion dollars, for the benefit of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
However, it has been the only important thing, really, that has been done in terms of cooperation for development in our continent in more than half a century.
Consequently, I maintain that it is time to put an end to this oblivion, this abandonment, this disdain for Latin America and the Caribbean, opposed to the good-neighbor policy of that titan of freedom that was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , and start with you. , because there would be no other leader who could carry out this undertaking, start with you a new stage among the peoples and nations of the continent, based on mutual respect and aid.
President Biden:
You have the key to open and substantially improve relations between all the countries of the American continent. I know that it is a complex and controversial initiative and I am aware that putting it into practice involves many difficulties. But, in my opinion, there is no better way to guarantee the prosperous, peaceful and just future that our peoples, our compatriots, as well as all the peoples of the continent and future generations deserve.
The proposal, President Biden, is comprehensive. It implies consolidating ourselves as an economic region in the world, strengthening brotherhood in the American continent, respecting our differences and our sovereignties, and ensuring that no one is left behind and that together we go in search of the beautiful utopia of freedom, equality and true democracy.
There are many of us who have not stopped dreaming of a fair and fraternal integration among all the peoples and countries of our continent, because as Simón Bolívar, the liberator, said: if heaven grants us the wish of a united America, this continent could be called , this united America could be called the Queen of nations and the mother of republics.
Welcome home, President Biden. You are our friend, and the American people are too. We are neighboring towns and sister towns.
Thank you.