The new ambassador of Mexico to the United Nations, Juan Ramon de la Fuente, presented his credentials Monday to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and confirmed that his country is committed to dialogue to solve the situation in Venezuela, regardless of the attitude of the U.S. President Donald Trump.
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"Regardless of what Donald Trump says today, Mexico's position will not vary with respect to Venezuela, which is to leave the door open to dialogue, which cannot be ruled out in any situation," De la Fuente said and recalled that "we want to find a peaceful solution (...) because impositions, sanctions, are not the best way (...) The solution will only come with peace and dialogue."
Juan Ramon de la Fuente, former Secretary of Health and former Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), has been involved with the U.N. since 1985 as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on issues of mental health, addictions and violence.
In 1995 he was vice-president of the World Health Assembly in Geneva and in 1998 he chaired the United Nations Council against AIDS (UNAIDS) in Paris.
He was also a member of the Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) on several occasions and in 2009, at the invitation of the then U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he joined the Council of the United Nations University, based in Tokyo.
Asked about Mexico's attitude towards President Trump's willingness to raise an anti-immigration wall on the border between the two countries, the new Mexican ambassador said that this is a matter of "internal U.S. policy," so "it deserves our respect beyond agreeing or not."
In any case, the ambassador made it clear that this is not in line with the vision and policies advocated by Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who supports dealing with immigration and border problems in collaboration with the U.N. and in line with the Marrakesh agreement in a more orderly regulation of migratory flows.