US and Canada at odds with avocado industry/US-Cuba embargo vote

The avocado industry is not run by drug dealers: AMLO. President López Obrador said there is a campaign that discredits the avocado industry in Mexico and that it is not controlled by drug dealers.  “Avocado producers in Michoacan are hard-working people. There is violence and criminal groups in the state but they are not linked to avocado growers.”

Consumption of Mexican avocados in the US has increased with a record number of imports registered. According to Texas A&M University, in 1997 more than one million tons were exported to the US whereas during the last two years this number has increased to four million tons. The economic impact of this industry is not only visible in Mexico, where it generates 78,000 direct jobs and more than 300,000 temporal and indirect jobs, but also in the US creating 58,299 direct jobs.

US-Cuba blockade vote. President López Obrador condemned the economic blockade imposed by the US on Cuba after the UN vote on Thursday. The president criticized the US veto power after 185 countries voted to lift the embargo and only two voted to maintain it.   

On Thursday countries voted at the UN´s General Assembly for the resolution issued by Cuba which demands the end of the economic, commercial and financial embargo and sanctions imposed by the US 60 years ago. The UN head secretary backed up the project by affirming that the embargo “clashes with an international system based on rule of law.”

AMLO celebrates Mexico´s economic figures. President López Obrador emphasized that Mexico´s growth economic forecast this month was surpassed as well as the strengthening of the Mexican peso against the US dollar.

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported that Mexico´s GDP grew 1 percent in 3Q22. This quarterly estimation implies a sustained growth level since the Jan-March period when the GDP also registered a 1 percent quarterly increase in real terms. Moreover, the Mexican peso showed a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase in 3Q22, accumulating a 2.7 percent growth since the start of the year.

The weakness of the US dollar, external factors like remittances and record exports from Mexico are boosting the Mexican peso.