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MEXICO CITY – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led a high-level cabinet delegation to Mexico on Friday to assess how Mexico's president-elect intends to restore the difficult relationship between the two. country.
Manuel López Obrador, a leftist who is committed to fighting corruption and tackling the entrenched poverty of Mexico, was ready for the delegation. He presented Mr. Pompeo with a series of proposals on trade, development, security and migration – issues that are at the heart of the relationship and the source of most friction.
Despite the tensions that developed under President Trump Marcelo Ebrard, who will be the next Foreign Minister, said that he had a "reasonable optimism" that Mexico would find "bases for understanding" to improve the relationship.
"The foundation of understanding is development and mutual respect" Mr. Ebrard added that the transition team would provide more details on the proposals once Mr. Trump responded, perhaps as soon next week.
But there were allusions to a change of priorities. Ebrard said the proposals included an important plan to promote development in Central America, the source of most migrants currently crossing the border into the United States.
Ebrard also warned that the new government was waiting to make "significant changes" in its security policy, where Washington's interest is centered on stemming the flow of drugs to across the southern border.
The delegation also met with President Enrique Peña Nieto and Luis Videgaray, Minister of Foreign Affairs
. Pompeo spoke little about development but focused on one of Pierre Trump's themes, a stronger border with Mexico. "Americans must be able to see improvements that better protect our national sovereignty and the security of our local communities," he said in a statement at the end of his trip
. Pompeo's delegation also included Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security; Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury; and Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law of Mr. Trump.
The composition of the American delegation reflected the issues that fueled the relations between the United States and Mexico, which became even more tense as criticized Mr. Trump Mexico rallies its supporters, calls immigrants Mexican criminals and threatens to end the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The Trump administration, however, must now face Mr. López Obrador, a hugely popular politician who has won a landslide. victory and a broad mandate. This will allow the new government, in its negotiations with the United States, to take advantage of the fact that Mr. Peña Nieto, who is deeply unpopular, has not escaped
. López Obrador said that Mexico will not be a "piñata" for any other country, but he found a positive tone after talking with Mr. Trump by phone and told reporters that he had invited the president at his inauguration on December 1st.
During a radio interview on Monday, Mr. Ebrard acknowledged the insults of the Trump administration but said that there was room to work with Washington.
"The treatment we received was terrible", who moved to the United States in 2016 to work with Latin American groups who supported Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign
"What we need to look for now these are the areas of understanding that there could be, "said Mr. Ebrard, who succeeded Mr. López Obrador as mayor of Mexico City. "The simplest thing in foreign policy is to amplify the conflict.The most complex is to see where the areas of understanding could be."
López Obrador is likely to re-establish the Mexican approach to work with the United States on improving security and migration control, especially in Central America.
He emphasized that the best way to address these two concerns is to promote economic development. the poorest regions of Mexico and Central America. López Obrador is right to talk about cooperation to confront the economic and security engine of Central American transmigration across Mexico, "Arturo Sarukhán, a former Mexican ambassador to Washington, wrote in an email.
" But if that means that a President America First is willing to invest significantly diplomatically and financially in Central America in ways that López Obrador may have been led to believe, is Mr. Rafael Fernández de Castro, Director of the Center for American Studies University of California San Diego, said that the friendly gestures between Mr. Trump and Mr. López Obrador were quite different. were surprising. They could, however, lay the groundwork for general agreement on several interrelated issues, he said.
The first is a successful renegotiation of Nafta, which has been stuck on Washington demands that neither Canada nor Mexico would accept. López Obrador's advisers say that they will follow the current government's negotiating strategy.
The second is a great investment plan in Central America and southern Mexico to tackle the underlying causes of migration, Fernández de Castro said. 19659002] The third problem is Washington's request for Mexico to accept an agreement to receive asylum seekers from Central America. Mr Fernández de Castro said that Mexico would need progress on the first two to answer the third question: "If they could align these three things, we could talk about a new relationship," he said. he declared. "There are a lot of issues and a lot of uncertainty because Trump is mercurial.
Mark Feierstein, director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said that the Trump team could find a ground of agreement with the new Mexican government on multiple issues, including addressing the root causes of crime.
"If they want a presentation that will resonate, they must emphasize these points," said Mr. Feierstein
. But Mr Sarukhán, the former ambassador, warned that it was unlikely that Mr Trump would give up his anti-Mexican rhetoric.
"How Trump chooses to talk about Mexico and respond to his next Mexican counterpart in the coming months will determine whether the bilateral relationship can be re-established or not," said Mr. Sarukhán. "Given what we have seen from this President of the United States, I will not hold my breath. "
Albinson Linares contributed to the report.
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