The US, Mexico restored relations in the post-Trump era, even while AMLO speaks for Biden

WASHINGTON – Just days after President Joe Biden’s term in office in the White House, leaders in Mexico and the United States want to restore a relationship that is not only fundamental to America’s foreign policy but also critical to Texas’ economy, security and culture.

The recharge does not just go beyond former President Donald Trump, the Republican, who is bullying Mexico over everything from immigration to trade to border security.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – despite many policy differences and a good working relationship with Trump – has also hampered relations over the past few months through an unmistakable maturity towards Biden. The Mexican president was one of the last foreign leaders in the world to congratulate the Democrat on his victory.

“It was just foolish,” Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said and called the snub ‘unhappy’.

AMLO, as he is known, further obscured and frustrated some officials with more substantive action. He has recently cracked down on the United States, for example, by signing a law restricting U.S. drug agents in Mexico and arguing with U.S. officials who accused the former Mexican secretary of defense of working with a Mexican drug cartel .

While some believe that López Obrador, who was elected in 2018, is simply trying to prevent the new US government from interfering in Mexico’s confusing domestic affairs, politicians and business leaders on both sides of the border now want to facilitate a rocky transition.

The nature of the relationship requires it.

Martha Bárcena, the outgoing Mexican ambassador to the United States, described the two countries as “an old couple who must find a way to always learn to get along.” Bárcena, who is leaving her post next month, added that “divorce is not an option.”

“There will be ups and downs, but we have to get along,” the ambassador said. Esteban Moctezuma, a former senator who was Mexico’s education secretary, will be replaced. “But at the end of the day, we have to get along, find common ground, take the high ground.”

Texas, which shares a 1,254-mile border with Mexico, has a lot at stake.

The state’s location puts it at the forefront of an ongoing Central American migration crisis and at the center of perennial debates on border security. It is estimated that two-thirds of all international trade also comes from Texas – nearly $ 400 billion in 2019 alone – supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs in sectors ranging from manufacturing to trade to energy.

Communities along the Texas-Mexico border have been economically and culturally stitched together, meaning issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic cross any line on a map.

“Real, substantive, and constructive engagement between the U.S. and Mexico is critical to Texas,” said Tony Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico under former President George W. Bush and now an attorney at White & Case in Mexico City. , said.

The Trump era, defined by the president’s mercury approach, has tested these dual ties.

The businessman launched his campaign in 2015 with a speech that dismissed many Mexican migrants as rapists and criminals. He made a promise of a border wall as a promise that Mexico would pay for it. He promised to end the North American free trade agreement, a lynchpin between the US, Mexico and Canada which he called the ‘worst trade agreement ever’.

After taking office, Trump threatened to close the border and raise tariffs on Mexican goods – actions that would destroy both countries and especially the Lone Star State.

But Trump has not questioned Mexico’s endemic corruption, drug violence or the murder of Mexican journalists. He did not abandon NAFTA, but negotiated an overhaul that the trade treaty mostly retained and updated. While Trump was able to get Mexico to use his troops to block tractors, he never managed to get Mexico to pay for its border wall.

AMLO, although he regularly concedes to Trump’s demands on issues such as immigration, never really involved his American counterpart’s scurry.

“He did not take the bait,” said Austin, Mr. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the foreign affairs committee said. He said he was one of those who advised Mexican officials not to put him too strongly to Trump’s stubborn rhetoric.

The two presidents, though across the political spectrum, also shared a few communities.

Both promote shameless nationalism and build passionate foundations with their own versions of populism. Both exploded in the media as ‘fake news’ while using their own bullying pulpits. Both have reduced COVID-19 guidelines, in order to contract the virus themselves.

The relationship still confused many observers.

“I could never understand it,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Conservative Laredo Democrat who works with Mexican officials in the AMLO government and those who have worked in the past. “I told his people, ‘I just do not understand it after he mentioned all these names. ‘

Cuellar recalls how AMLO refused to meet House President Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats when he visited DC in July to celebrate the implementation of the new North American trade deal, but rather to join Trump and other Republicans in the White House visit.

The Democrat – even at the time about the race in the White House – said he had warned Mexican officials that there would be a new resident of the Oval Office soon.

“Now they are working to restore the relationship,” Cuellar said. “Now they work overtime.”

Biden, even with López Obrador’s talks, was probably never teasing Mexico or tapping insults on Twitter.

“I have absolutely no doubt that President Biden will extend the hand of friendship and cooperation,” said Escobar, the El Paso Democrat, adding that she hopes López Obrador “will retaliate.”

The U.S. president is an experienced foreign policy man who once served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Biden, too, is no stranger to Mexico, as he led the U.S. delegation to the inauguration of then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012.

Biden sparked optimism by allegedly tapping Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and a long-time experienced Latin American expert, to oversee issues concerning the southern U.S. border at the National Security Council.

AMLO was also one of the first world leaders to call on Biden from the White House.

“I feel confident that we will be in good hands,” said Alfredo Duarte, president of Taxco Produce, a leading importer of Mexican products in North Texas. “We will have people who actually know what they are doing and what is really at stake between the two countries. No more crazy talk. ”

But a more involved, if less bombastic, US president also brings a different dynamic.

Amid GOP criticism, Biden is already using executive action to unravel Trump’s immigration policies, including the so-called “stay in Mexico” program, as US and Mexican officials focus on a possible increase in migration from Central America .

Although these moves are likely to be well received by AMLO, it is unclear how Biden can rely on Mexico – and how AMLO, now with leveraged funding, can respond – if there is another crisis.

Biden may also appear to be more aggressive than Trump would have been with enforcing environmental and labor provisions included in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, the recharge trade agreement, at the urging of congressional Democrats.

McCaul, the Republican from Austin, recently had dinner with Bárcena, the outgoing Mexican ambassador to the United States. She expressed her concern that Biden would try to re-enact sections of the agreement, McCaul said, telling Congressman: ‘Make sure the USMCA remains intact. ”

“That was really her strongest message,” said McCaul, a free trade advocate who joined every Texan in Congress to vote in favor of the treaty.

AMLO also remains a game card, especially when he sends Biden’s stay-away pitches.

McCaul was worried that AMLO would lean a little more on the socialist side, which would strengthen state-owned energy companies at the expense of U.S. investment. Cuellar said in response to Mexico’s drug enforcement movements that he had reminded Mexican officials that the “US is not the enemy.”

Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the US, said the “core challenge” was whether AMLO was using the moment to seek a holistic diplomatic recharge or rather have a relationship that was “isolated and in the neat rubbish of the house” and foreign policy issues. “

Bárcena said she generally feels “moderately optimistic” about the relationship between her boss and Biden. But Javier Garza, a journalist in Torreon, Coahuila, and a media commentator on security issues, warned of the prospect of AMLO’s ‘nationalism flourishing again’.

“We still do not know how he is going to react, and that is the problem for a relationship like the Mexico US that needs security,” he said. “Just as we feared for the unpredictability of Donald Trump in 2016. We must now fear the unpredictability of López Obrador.”

Benning reported from Washington, while Corchado reported from El Paso.