This article first appeared on El País on November 1, 2021.
Mexico plans to address discussions on arms trafficking and corruption at the UN Security Council during November. The Latin American country has assumed this Monday -and for one month- the presidency of the UN body. To crown his intention to put these issues on the table, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will travel to New York on November 9 to speak to the 15 member countries of the body.
López Obrador will bring a message on how corruption, inequality, and exclusion affect international armed conflicts, informed Mexico’s ambassador to the UN, Juan Ramón de la Fuente. The president will meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and be in New York “less than 24 hours”. The Mexican president has only traveled abroad once in the first three years of his term, which began in December 2018. It was in July 2020 that López Obrador boarded a commercial flight to Washington to meet at the White House with then-U.S. President Donald Trump. The Mexican president has not appeared at the UN headquarters for General Assembly interventions in the last three years.
Another issue that the Mexican representation wants to put the spotlight on is arms trafficking. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard will also appear at the UN headquarters on November 22 to speak about the impact this activity has on countries’ security. Mexico filed a lawsuit last August against 11 arms companies for facilitating and encouraging illegal arms trafficking to Mexico. The government is seeking compensation and recognition that this activity has negatively impacted the country’s security.
“This is a matter of particular importance to my country and many others,” said De la Fuente at the presentation of Mexico’s program for the Security Council. The ambassador has also noted that issues such as migration and climate change will be addressed. “What Mexico has repeatedly raised is that the migration issue has to be managed in the three places where the phenomenon develops, in the places of origin, transit, and destination,” he commented.
With the presidency of the Security Council, De la Fuente has indicated that it will also be his obligation to analyze the situation in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen,, and Iraq and work on strategies for preventive measures for world peace and security agenda.
