By MEGAN JANETSKY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Mexico mentioned Monday he anticipated “major changes” within the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Mexico throughout the incoming Trump administration.
Salazar, who has served as ambassador below the administration of President Joe Biden, is slated to get replaced with Ron Johnson, a former ambassador to El Salvador throughout Trump’s first time period who was beforehand within the CIA. Johnson, who was tapped by Trump in December, awaits Senate affirmation.
Salazar’s departure underscores a bigger potential shift in relations between the U.S. and Mexico with the incoming Trump administration and newly elected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in energy, one thing that might take a look at the financial and political bonds of an important diplomatic relationship within the hemisphere.
The neighboring nations have felt only a few bumps of their relationship in recent times. Mexico has helped the U.S. block migrants from going north as figures like Salazar have largely averted criticizing strikes by Sheinbaum’s ally and predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In his departing remarks on Monday, Salazar touted what he known as “historic cooperation” between the 2 international locations on safety, migration, financial growth, and combating fentanyl manufacturing.
That relationship was strained final 12 months when López Obrador was angered by criticism from Salazar over a controversial judicial reform his authorities pushed via, and the dramatic kidnapping and seize of narco boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. The tensions at one level induced López Obrador to place relations with the U.S. Embassy “on pause.”
However Trump’s promise of mass deportations and slapping tariffs on Mexico and different commerce companions is more likely to solely deepen these tensions. Whereas Sheinbaum has responded with a stern however collaborative tone in direction of Trump, it’s nonetheless unclear if she’s going to be capable of keep the identical amicable relationship that the Trump as soon as shared with López Obrador, additionally a populist.
Sharing an almost 2,000-mile (3,218 kilometer) border and an inextricable commerce relationship totaling a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} a 12 months, sustaining robust diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Mexico have lengthy been a vital spine of American overseas coverage.
