Erika Hernández and Claudia Guerrero/ Reform Agency
Sunday, March 19, 2023 | 11:19
CDMX.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador meets this Sunday with a plural group of United States congressmen, at the National Palace.
Also participating in the meeting were the US Ambassador, Ken Salazar, and the Secretaries of Foreign Relations, National Defense, Security, Economy and Energy, as well as the director of Pemex, Octavio Romero.
The meeting between the President and the United States congressmen takes place amid tensions over criticism of Mexico’s security strategy to combat drug cartels.
Republican lawmakers have raised the possibility of US troops entering the fight against criminal gangs.
Although the Foreign Ministry has recognized that the initiatives are not viable to be approved in this legislature, the Government of Mexico has responded with an increasingly harsh discourse, in defense of national sovereignty.
Yesterday, in the framework of the commemoration of the Oil Expropriation, the President warned that he will not allow the United States to trample on Mexico, despite the threats.
From the Zócalo, he said that his government will be able to collaborate in the fight to stop the arrival of fentanyl in the United States, but it will not submit to or allow shady agreements with the agencies of that country, as was the case in the past.
López Obrador receives the Republican and Democratic legislators, after having referred to some of them as arrogant, interventionist, political and, above all, hypocritical, since he considers that the strategy to combat drugs in the United States has not been able to stop the addictions and attack the causes of the problem.
Initially, this Sunday’s meeting had been planned to be held in the port of Veracruz, at the San Juan de Ulúa fort.
However, weather conditions made it necessary to change the venue of the meeting to Mexico City.
The project
The dialogue with North American senators and representatives was agreed to talk about the project of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), with which it is intended to enable an industrial zone in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.
To make the transit of goods from the Pacific to the Atlantic efficient, the Government modernizes the ports of Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz.
It also renews the Istmo railway, which connects both terminals.
Currently, they are also working on the search for investors for the 10 industrial parks that will be installed in the area, in which special fiscal conditions will be offered and the aim is to guarantee the supply of energy.
Only four days ago, the Government announced that it will grant concession to private, national and foreign, the properties of the corridor.
The idea is that these facilities can be used for the creation of the so-called “Development Poles for Well-being”, in which job opportunities, economic and social growth should be generated.
“In order to promote rapid and effective development of the region, it is pertinent that the properties that make up the development poles for well-being be granted short-term concessions, through bidding, to those who present new investment projects that are suitable for the referred poles (…).
“With the commitment that they be developed in accordance with the dates and percentages of progress determined for this purpose by the Governing Board of the Corridor, as well as with the possibility of transferring them to the concessionaire at the end of the concession once it complies with them”, it is refers.
The concessions will be awarded for five years and private companies will have the option to purchase, as long as they comply with the conditions established by the Government.
The decision was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation by the Secretary of the Navy, the agency that has control of the project.
In fact, the document establishes that this unit will have four of the eight seats on the Governing Board of the CIIT company.
