López Obrador sends letter on immigration to Obama

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 2006 Mexican Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) presidential candidate, who inaugurated himself the legitimate president of Mexico with a following of more than 2 million people, said that on Saturday he wrote a letter to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to find a solution for the immigration issue.
 
In 2006, López Obrador contested the Mexican presidential election claiming it was fraudulent.
 
The leader of the leftist party, PRD, organized a meeting yesterday at City Hall in San Luis Río Colorado where close to 300 PRD militants attended including members of the Labour Party - Partido del Trabajo (PT), the Convergence Party - Convergencia (PC), along with local congressional representative Petra Santos Ortiz and former mayoral candidate Santos González Yescas. There he stated that on Saturday he visited Altar, Sonora a town with a high volume of immigrants and that is where he said he wrote his letter to Obama.
 
He explained that in the letter he points out to Obama that the problem with immigration between Mexico and the U.S. will not be resolved by building fences, or by militarizing the border, but that instead there is a need to stimulate the economy and the social growth of Mexico.
 
He adds that immigration to the U.S. has functioned as an escape valve reducing social pressure on the country. “If it weren’t for immigration to the U.S., or the fact that many Mexicans risk their lives to cross the border to find a way to end their hunger and poverty, Mexico would have had a social revolt,” he stated.
 
Lopez Obrador, also known as the “poor people’s president,” added that for the last 26 years Mexico has had economic policies that are against the working class, not allowing for economic growth or generating jobs.
 
“If 500 to 600 thousand Mexicans did not leave each year to make their way to the U.S., Mexico would have a social explosion, that is why I wrote to Obama. To tell him that the relationship between a strong country and a weak one must be founded in cooperation, not coercive measures, or walls, not about race, or any authoritarian measures,” he said as he held a couple of sheets of paper.
 
López Obrador closed his speech by pointing out that the solution to the immigration problem must include generating jobs and economic development in Mexico.
 
Before continuing to Baja California, López Obrador asked attendees not to vote for the National Action Party (PAN) or Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) because they have ensured that the country is controlled by the mafia and instead encouraged them to continue fighting for economic policies that benefit the working class.