LatAm in Focus: Jorge Castañeda on the Frictions Straining U.S.-Mexico Ties
LatAm in Focus: Jorge Castañeda on the Frictions Straining U.S.-Mexico Ties
Mexico’s former foreign minister covers recent bilateral turbulence, the Cuba factor, and what U.S. midterms mean for relations.
Since early in the second Trump administration, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has drawn international accolades for keeping a cool head in the face of White House pressure.
But lately, strains on relations keep piling up. In April, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 Mexican officials, including a sitting governor from Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party. The U.S. ambassador had used a ribbon cutting in Sinaloa that month to signal that the USMCA deal requires Mexico to pursue corrupt officials. The State Department is scrutinizing the activities of Mexico’s 53 consulates on U.S. soil in a move that could lead to some closures. Plus, evidence of CIA activities in Mexico has roiled domestic politics while sparking Sheinbaum’s repeated emphasis on her country's sovereignty.
And that’s just a partial list.
"U.S.-Mexican relations are probably in their worst moment that I can remember since the 1970s,” says Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico, in this Latin America in Focus conversation with AS/COA’s Carin Zissis. “Never were there so many fronts open at the same time."
He also makes the case for solutions. “One thing that would be...important for the Mexican government to do is to really try and figure out what is our agenda—Not how we respond to Trump's agenda, but what is ours.”
Dr. Castañeda cautions against Mexican hopes for a reprieve if Republicans lose congressional seats in November. He argues that Trump will only get more active in the foreign arena if he finds himself limited on domestic issues, saying: “This idea that [Trump] will be constrained by the Congress...is just not the proper reading of American presidencies for a lame duck after losing midterms.”
On top of the other challenges, Mexico also found itself in U.S. crosshairs over oil shipments to Cuba. Dr. Castañeda, a long-time Cuba analyst, weighs in on U.S. policy in Havana and, should the island’s regime fade, what it could mean for the future of the Latin American left. On that front, he forecast “a new aggiornamento”—a new era.
Our guest
Jorge G. Castañeda was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003. He is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Mexican and Latin American politics, comparative politics, and U.S.-Mexican and U.S.-Latin American relations.
Dr. Castañeda has more than 15 books published in the United Sates and elsewhere. In 1997, he was appointed Global Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies at New York University. In April 2008, Castañeda was elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and International Member of the American Philosophical Society.
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