That speech does help. It is an elegant invitation for the United States to leave behind its colonialist and imperialist foreign policy. AMLO is trying at all costs to avoid confrontation with the nuclear superpower that is México’s commercial partner, a confrontation that would make it impossible for him to govern.

A basic principle of Latin American de-colonial politics has always been feasibility: proposing and making changes that are possible. They may be only small changes, but they are the ones that are possible when big changes are not. Quantitative change can become qualitative: Small changes can produce in the end something essentially different from what we had at the start. Feasibility allows transforming reality without risky ruptures. Alternating praise for President Biden with invitations for him to end the blockade of Cuba creates new psychological and political conditions.

As a Morena activist, do you see AMLO as too optimistic? Do you agree that Latin America need not choose between integrating with the US or defensively opposing it, that it has a third way?

AMLO is not optimistic. He is hopeful. He is striving to generate hope, not optimism, because optimism tends to assume that things aren’t really as bad as they might appear. But hope commits us to creating new conditions of dignified life for all people. AMLO is proposing a new hemispheric consensus around principles of politics very different from the colonial logic of domination that revolves around the politics of center and periphery. Hope helps us discard the choice between “integrate” or “oppose.” AMLO argues that the “third way” for the Americas, including the US, must be the very first way.     

AMLO speaks of the USMCA trade agreement, the 2020 successor to NAFTA, as a model agreement for a new, mutually beneficial relationship, an example of that “third way.” Do you agree? Or does the USMCA limit México's sovereignty and let US corporate interests override the well-being of Mexican workers and farmers?

The excessive dependence of México on the United States economy will always be detrimental, but President López Obrador speaks continually about the benefits of the USMCA because this remains the agreement he has. The USMCA does have positive elements. It offers an opportunity to raise wages in México and reduce the disparity with Canada and USA, an opportunity to standardize union policies and avoid chiefdoms and corruption in working-class organizations. AMLO cannot cancel the USMCA. What he can do: boost the positives on the one hand and try to offset the negatives on the other.

AMLO is a realistic leader who takes advantage of the possibilities for greater maneuverability, while controlling for potential damage. But he is also a visionary, never losing sight of the new society that is our eventual goal.