Mexico City (AP) – President of Mexico Claudia Sinbaum’ The strategy to manage the tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump may oppose wider regional tensions and the Trump administration’s lack of motivation to make concessions, experts say.
Since Trump took office, the newly elected Mexican president has been praised and called a “Trump whisper” of sorts, The brunt of US tariffs It has hit other foreign economies. Shainbaum did so by cracking down on the cartel with heavier hands than his predecessor. It has delivered dozens of cartel affiliates to US authorities, pointing to a decline in fentanyl attacks at the US border.
What she said on Thursday was an exchange that she said she wanted to be official. When the two leaders spoke in February, she said Trump linked fentanyl to a tariff threat from Mexico.
“So what do we suggest?” Simbaum said at a press conference Thursday morning. “We hope that if this issue is reduced, we see a 25% (customer duties) shrinking.”
But now, observers say Shanebaum is increasingly favored by the wall. Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at Inter-American Dialogue, said Sinbaum must now walk “thin lines” with Trump, which appears to be more complicated.
“There’s an uncertainty that depends on the relationship,” Shifter said. “Sheinbaum feels incredibly frustrated as he has taken great steps to deal with the cartel, and it doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy Trump.”
Stop signing the contract
Just a day ago, Shainbaum met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. His visit to Mexicoleaders agreed to discuss security issues and continue to work together to combat crime.
For weeks, Shanebaum was trying to sign a formal security agreement with the United States, which emphasized the importance of respecting Mexico’s sovereignty, hoping to set clear rules amid Trump’s volatile foreign policy tactics.
A push for security transactions came as Shainbaum repeatedly publicly rejected the Trump administration’s offer to send US troops to fight the cartel. Her meeting with Rubio came shortly after the Trump administration took a strike in the Southern Caribbean. I’ll kill 11 people It alleged that what Rubio said was intended as a warning was a trafficker to the US.
“I think the idea behind having an agreement is to create and build parameters,” said Karin Ziss, interim director of the American Council in Washington. “On the way to Mexico, we can see why Claudia Shainbaum emphasizes sovereignty when Secretary Rubio highlighted US attacks on suspects in the Caribbean.”
“We wear boots on the ground, which is a very specific concern from the Mexican side,” she said.
However, by Wednesday’s meeting it was clear that the two governments would not sign a formal agreement. Instead, they announced a high-level group of Mexican and US officials monitoring their cooperation. Given the fact that Mexican officials have been meeting with the Trump administration regularly since January, it was unclear how much of a change would actually happen.
“It seems like a flashy term that doesn’t mean anything, but it means a lot,” Rubio said of the newly established co-group.
Lack of concessions
Palmyra Tapia, a political analyst at the Mexican Centre for Economic Research and Education, said it was a sign that Trump would not make many concessions to Mexican leaders while Sinbaum follows his promise to crack down on the cartel.
Just last month, Trump told the press “Mexico is doing what we’re telling them to do,” and last week he said that when Shanebaum likes, he believes Mexico is still run by a cartel.
“Trump really has no incentives,” Tapia said. “His winning strategy was to get what he wanted with the threat of tariffs.”
Due to the US strike in the Caribbean, he left Sinbaum, where most of the options were low, when tensions peaked in Latin America.
The move disrupts the feathers of many Latin American leaders. He is still tackling the complex legacy and violent fallout of past American interventions in the region. Following the meeting with Rubio, the Mexican government once again reminded the Trump administration of the importance of working in areas that respect “no subordinate” and allies.
However, Zissis and other observers said that while the Trump administration has shown little willingness to give in to the ground, Sheinbaum has some cards on her sleeve.
That’s one that the Mexican government has been using for a long time. Help migratory birds flow north. The other is the high popularity of Sinbaum in Mexico. 70% to 80% approval.
At the same time, they said Shanebaum had little room for radically shifting her strategy to Trump.
“This is a very delicate balance, and at the same time, she handles this relationship so well that she is at a lot of crisis for Mexico,” Zissis said.
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