Leaders of Mexico, Brazil acknowledge Biden win

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro congratulated President-elect Joe Biden, becoming the last major Latin American leaders to do so.

Bolsonaro posted on his Twitter account: “Greetings to President

Joe Biden, with my best wishes and the hope that the United States will remain ‘the land of the free and the brave.’ ”

López Obrador said Tuesday he intentionally waited until the Electoral College vote before writing to Biden. The brief letter contained an implicit warning against getting involved in Mexico’s internal affairs.

But the letter also held out a seeming, tentative offer that Mexico might continue to act as a buffer against waves of migrants seeking to reach the United States, a role Mexico took on partly at the urging of President Donald Trump.

“I also want to express my recognition of your stance in favor of migrants from Mexico and the rest of the world, which will allow us to continue with plans to promote development and welfare in southeastern Mexico and the countries of Central America,” López Obrador wrote.

“I believe that this way, nobody will be forced to leave the land of their birth, and they will be able to live, work and be happy with their family and among their people and their culture,” the letter continued. “In this way, we can create a definitive solution to migratory flows from and through Mexico toward the United States.”

Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst at Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Training, said López Obrador’s wariness of Biden stems in part from the Democrat’s stance in favor of renewable energy, in contrast to Trump’s fervent support of coal. The Mexican leader has made oil and coal — along with the defense of state industries — a keystone of his administration.