A Necessary Rapprochement

Republican Sen. John Kennedy recently put it in a question: “Is (AMLO) a friend of the United States?”

Between whether it’s apples or pears, some U.S. specialists in Mexico expect the next president to initiate new rapprochements with Washington as soon as he or she is elected.

According to that view, it is an important task, especially to put relations back on track and move beyond a stage in which statements have been so unpredictable that they have become a challenge.

Both President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the former president — now Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — and some of his allies have been protagonists in this regard.

Formally, bilateral relations have been good. There is security cooperation, there is dialogue in terms of trade, there is a traditional understanding of encapsulating conflicting issues to avoid contamination of the rest of the agenda.

But also, from the U.S. point of view, “they could be better.” And that’s most likely the sentiment on the Mexican side, as well, based on grievances of their own.

In Washington, in fact, at the levels of bureaucracy, analysis centers and congressional corridors, it is considered that the relationship is not as good as it seems, requiring a relaunch in several areas.

There is a dichotomy of thinking in Washington toward the Mexican government. “We need their collaboration,”* U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland recently said, though Garland himself believes it could be better, both in terms of migration control and drug trafficking.

But the plea for collaboration prevails, according to Maureen Meyer of the Washington Office on Latin America.

Part of the problem is that migration and drugs are issues that have been on the bilateral agenda for decades and, summarized in what is seen here as the border crisis, have become very important in the U.S. election campaign.

But part of it is also that some of President Lopez Obrador’s statements and proposals create many doubts. Republican Sen. John Kennedy recently put it in a question: “Is (AMLO) a friend of the United States?”*

At the same time, however, the Mexican government has accepted multiple policies promoted by the United States, especially with regard to stopping caravans of migrants from Central America and various deportations of drug trafficking kingpins.

But there are also complaints about irritating trade issues, such as disagreements over energy and genetically modified corn, and especially about Mexico’s allowing Chinese companies to use it as a conduit to circumvent bans on steel imports.

In addition, there are doubts about Mexico’s infrastructure and its capacity to adequately receive and take advantage of the investment contemplated in “nearshoring”; the relocation of industries already established in China; the need to work on the reestablishment of bonds of trust and confidence; and the need to establish a new relationship of trust between the two countries.

And this is not about ideologies. It is about economic pragmatism and geopolitical reality.

The fact, in any case, is that there is enough unfinished business and misunderstanding that the next occupant of the presidential chair in Mexico may feel compelled to make Washington an urgent stopover as soon as he or she is elected.

*Editor’s Note: Although accurately translated, this quoted passage could not be independently verified.