Today, the current US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, visited the prestigious think tank Center for Research and Teaching Economics (CIDE), at the Mexican business district Santa Fe located in Mexico City.
Since Mexico's most important bilateral relationship is the United States’, the message delivered by the Ambassador is quite relevant. Because the dialogue table with the Ambassador was a little long, I will publish two entries. The first one will discuss the participation of the CIDE professors, and the second one will review the central arguments exposed by Carlos Pascual.
Who is Carlos Pascual? The diplomat was born in Cuba, and moved to the United States at age three. He previously worked in the White House National Security Council as senior director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, also served as ambassador to Ukraine between 2000 and 2003, and before coming to Mexico he was the director of the US State Department Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization. Last year, he was appointed by Barack Obama as the ambassador to Mexico. There was some controversy around his designation, because of his fame as an expert on ‘failed states.’
At the beginning of the meeting, two distinguished academics of the institution, PhD. Jorge Chabat and PhD. Guadalupe González, questioned the diplomat about the state of affairs between the two nations.
Jorge Chabat began his speech highlighting the lack of enthusiasm among Mexicans about a broader integration with the powerful neighbor. In his opinion, the last decade was characterized by a firm belief that Mexico was getting more concessions from the United States, this impression was reinforced with the closer ties between the first Mexican President from the opposition, the rightist Vicente Fox, and George W. Bush, and the former’s continuous declarations about the enchilada completa, or an integrated immigration reform, which would legalize a few millions of illegal Mexicans working in the US.
However, with the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the lack of Mexican cooperation on the Iraq war in the Security Council, all the promises and projects were put in stand by. In addition, the Bush administration stopped paying attention to Mexican issues and focused on the war on terror. With the new democrat government, the Mexican authorities guessed the panorama would change, but the financial crisis and the problems in Middle East shunned this situation. All these events caused the Mexican public opinion to be skeptical about a deeper integration with the States and provoked suspicion about US actions.
Guadalupe González deepened this last topic and quoted several times the poll México y el Mundo to prop up Chabat’s argument about the increasing distrust on the Americans, and asked the Ambassador about how is the relationship with Mexico being designed.
Next post will be about Carlos Pascual's rejoinder. Sorry about the image, I could not get a better one. From left to right: Jorge Chabat, Guadalupe González, Carlos Pascual, and Jorge Schiavon, Director of the CIDE's International Studies Department.
