Claudia Sheinbaum’s “cold head” to negotiate with Donald Trump seems to be reaching a limit. The president of Mexico had made a huge difference with respect to other world leaders who have responded to the temperamental way of negotiating the president of the United States with the same magnitude and lack of political touch. Sheinbaum celebrated that their temperance and patience had brought important benefits for Mexico, such as having fought a good part of the tariffs imposed by Trump to imports from other countries in the world. The leftist president also highlighted the good bilateral cooperation in the field of border, drug and weapons and migration trafficking. However, in recent days, in one of those unpredictable turns that distinguishes it, the Trump administration has begun to make decisions that strongly impact Mexico and for those that did not take into account its counterparts in the Latin American country, which battle for understanding the swings of its main commercial partner. “Mexico is not a piñata of anyone,” said Sheinbaum this Monday, and has emphasized that the Latin American country will not be at the expense of Washington’s unilateral decisions. “Mexico is respected,” he has settled.
Three recent events have forced Sheinbaum to raise the tone of his claim to the Trump administration. The most controversial, due to the speculation it has caused, hits the president of the president, Morena. The weekend it was announced that the US revoked the tourist visa of the border state of Baja California, the Marine Marineist of the Pilar, and her husband, Carlos Torres. The state president and her husband have indicated that the cancellation of the visa is a routine issue and have referred to the complexity that the migratory issue is going through in the United States. Torres, a lawyer and former deputy who first militated in the PAN and now sympathizes with Morena, said he has “quiet consciousness”, while Del Pilar has defended her husband’s “integrity”. The measure consulted first in Torres, who was removed the visa when he tried Zetaand was extended to the governor, who was notified days later.
This Monday, the president said that “the United States has to inform the Government of Mexico” about the revocation of the visas of Del Pilar and Torres. Sheinbaum has acknowledged that he learned about Washington’s measure for the publication made by the Morenista governor in her networks. “The information will be requested to know what the causes are, why these visas are withdrawn,” said the president. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Mexico has indicated to this newspaper that visa records are confidential and that specific cases cannot be ventilated to the public. The lack of clarity has given weapons to the opposition, which has speculated on possible inquiries from Washington against Mexican politicians with criminal links. This possibility has livelihood, within the framework of Trump’s demands to Mexico to attack drug cartels and, consequently, to the networks of complicity that have enabled their power.
Binational security and criminal organizations make up the second of the reasons that have tensioned the relationship between Mexico and the US. Ovid Guzmán, the youngest of Joaquín’s children El Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, reached an agreement with Washington to declare himself guilty of drug trafficking and deliver information to the US authorities. Some journalists have added that, as part of these negotiations, relatives of El Chapo have entered the United States these days, apparently in search of special protection. Again, Sheinbaum has indicated that he knew about the news by the media and has asked the Trump administration to share official information. The president recalled that Mexico extradited the son of El Chapo in 2023 and that the US Department of Justice must “be sending information permanently” to his counterpart, especially to the Prosecutor’s Office, which also has open investigations against Ovid Guzmán.
The doubts about the unknown agreements with the family of El Chapo have been crowned with the revelation, this Monday, that another son of the capo, the elder, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, managed to escape from an operation of the Mexican security forces in February, according to The Wall Street Journal. The movie the same way in which he managed to get rid, through a tunnel – like his own father, who escaped twice of two different prisons in Mexico – is a blow to the security strategy deployed by the Sheinbaum government, very anchored in the intelligence work of federal agencies. They cannot, however, refuse the successes of that policy, which in a few months has led to the capture of hundreds of criminals and the confiscation of historical amounts of drugs, including Fentanyl, one of Trump’s main concerns.
Sheinbaum has also revealed his discomfort on Monday for Washington’s decision to suspend land imports from Mexico for two weeks, in the midst of the crisis due to the chesting worm plague. The president has indicated that this measure has also been unilateral and that there was no prior notice to Mexico, which exports more than $ 1,000 million in cattle to the neighboring country. The announcement of the US Secretariat of Agriculture has taken the Sheinbaum government by surprise because, days before, the head of the branch in Mexico, Julio Berdegué, met in Washington with his American counterpart, Brooke Rollins, with which, as the official believed, he had achieved convenient agreements for the two countries on various issues, including the cattle. The reality in the Trump era, with its turns and contradictions, has closed the door on the face of Mexico.
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
