As Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes office on Saturday, he must balance his humanitarian promises with a hope for good relations with the United States.
MEXICO CITY — The new president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has built his entire political career on defending the poor.
Now, days before he takes office, President Trump is testing how firmly he will live up to that.
Thousands of migrants from Central America have amassed along the border of Mexico and the United States — with thousands more on the way. American border patrol agents fired tear gas at them on Sunday to prevent hundreds from reaching the border.
Mr. Trump has vowed to keep the migrants on Mexican soil while they apply for asylum in the United States, a process that could squeeze them into squalid, overcrowded shelters for months, possibly even years. Mexican officials say the strain is already causing a humanitarian emergency, creating a political crisis for Mr. López Obrador even before he takes office.
“Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U. S. A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!”
After more than 15 years of campaigning as a leftist firebrand, Mr. López Obrador must swiftly decide: Will he stand up to Mr. Trump and defend the migrants’ pleas to be allowed into the United States, even if many of their asylum requests will ultimately be rejected? Or will he acquiesce to Mr. Trump’s demands and the economic imperative of good relations with the United States?
“The Mexican government is in a dead-end alley,” said Raúl Benítez Manaut, a professor of international relations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “López Obrador is facing a baptism of fire, and a dilemma of whether he should maintain his promises of humanitarian policies, or stop the masses of migrants trying to reach the U. S.”
Members of the new Mexican administration, which takes office on Saturday, view the situation with alarm. Top cabinet ministers had been preparing on Sunday to discuss what to do about the standoff with the United States — and their own country’s growing frustration with thousands of poor migrants streaming in from Central America — when their agenda got hijacked by the fracas at the border.
Suddenly, the incoming ministers found themselves watching videos of hundreds of migrants, including small children, rushing toward the border gates and getting tear-gassed by American border agents.
Mr. López Obrador, who has promised jobs and visas to migrants traveling north, now has to square his lofty campaign promises with some nettlesome international realities — as the whole world watches.
The question is, which version of Mr.
