■ Mexico’s president urged the U.S. to end its sanctions against Cuba.

MEXICO CITY — The highlight of Mexico’s Independence Day on Thursday was a visit by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-canel.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador welcomed the Cuban leader on the reviewing platform for Mexico’s annual Sept. 16 military parade.

López Obrador called on the United States to end the economic blockade of Cuba. The Mexican leader also urged Cuban Americans to “leave aside partisan or electoral interests” and seek reconciliation.

“Hopefully President (Joe) Biden has enough political sensitivity to act with greatness and put an end to the political attacks on Cuba,” López Obrador said. “He should also help the Cuban American community put aside political or electoral interests. They have to leave behind resentment and understand the new circumstances and seek reconciliation.”

The pandemic, the effects of the U.S. sanctions and Cuba’s economic mismanagement have suffocated the country’s economy. Thousands of Cubans took part in protests July 11 and 12, angered by shortages of food and medicine and by power outages, as well as some demanding more political freedom.

López Obrador said: “It looks bad that the U.S. government is using the blockade to prevent the well-being of the Cuban people, with the goal of obliging people through necessity to confront their own government.”

“If this perverse strategy is successful,” López Obrador said, “it would become a pyrrhic victory, vile and perverse.”