Ken Salazar, the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, handed over his credentials to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his National Palace office.
The US diplomat arrived at the historic building at 4.30pm and left the Executive Branch at 7.43pm, but the meeting with the federal president lasted only 20 minutes.
On his way out, Salazar greeted media representatives with his denim hat.
Asked expressly how he was doing in his first meeting with López Obrador, the ambassador smiled and raised his right thumb.
On his social media, Salazar was very grateful for the kindness and hospitality of the Federal Chief Executive.
“I formally begin my assignment as U.S. ambassador to Mexico,” he said. While President López Obrador said that he greeted the ambassador “Kenneth Lee Salazar, from the United States, and Fernando Estellita Lins, from Yeast Coimbra, Brazil.”
Earlier, Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon indicated that Salazar will be a very close ambassador to Mexico and that his appointment is good news for the country.
“He understands very well some of the approaches that President López Obrador is making for three reasons; first, because he represented the struggle of the so-called Hispanics in the United States; second, because he comes from below, he is not the son of rich people, he cost a lot of work, and third, he has a very special sensitivity to our community, which is why he was elected president [Joe] Biden, he is an ambassador who was close to Mexico, “he said.
Ebrard Casaubon recalled that Salazar did a program in the United States similar to Youth Building the Future and Sowing Life.
“In the case of the United States it was 100,000 [jóvenes], Because he organized it to pay unemployed young people, young people of color, children of marginalized Mexicans there, and invited them (…) to work for the conservation of cultural reserves of United States, and they started planting trees. “
He stressed that there is a great affinity between what Salazar did and what López Obrador is now proposing to control the migratory flow in Central America.
The official considered that there are chances that the US government will support these programs in this region.
“From what I heard and what we heard on Thursday – because he was in Washington and he spoke out in favor of those ideas.” [dijo Salazar]: ‘This is what we Democrats have always done, why don’t we do it in Central America and Mexico if we can help them?’ I see a possibility mattering, a promoter of this cause in Washington that we didn’t have. That’s good news for Mexico. “