Jorge G. Castañeda

There are several questions around Vice President Kamala Harris's upcoming trip to Mexico and Guatemala on June 7 and 8. They mainly involve the larger of those two countries, but as the US seeks to deepen its ties in Latin America -- and, importantly, as it hopes to stem the flow of migrants heading to the southern US border -- the answers will help determine whether the Biden administration can effectively address the so-called "root causes" of that migration in Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America.

First, there is the question of timing, as Harris seems to have chosen an odd moment to visit America's southern neighbor.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last week's virtual summit meeting between President Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico was uninspiring, or at least the speeches were. Far more interesting was what the Mexican and American teams discussed before the presidents met.

First was a request by López Obrador, who is known as AMLO, for emergency shipments of American vaccines. The day before the summit, the White House essentially said no for now. ("We're going to talk about that", Biden offered, without commitment, afterward).

Then, on the eve of the event, AMLO announced that he would submit an immigration proposal to the American side, modeled on the Bracero program, which sent millions of Mexican men to work on American farms from World War II until 1964.…  Seguir leyendo »

During his first months in office, President-elect Joe Biden will have more than enough on his plate to deal with besides peaceful and essentially non-conflictive neighbors like Mexico and Canada. Covid-19, the question of what to do about Donald Trump, the slumping economy, and Biden's ambitious social agenda are almost overwhelming. Foreign-policy issues such as Iran, the Paris Agreements on Climate Change, China and Venezuela will probably concentrate his international attention.

But he shouldn't procrastinate in excess with regard to Mexico; there is a fire kindling next door.

While there are a number of specific bilateral issues that Trump neglected and that Biden will have to concentrate on regarding Mexico, his task may be driven by another, more abstract notion: Mexican stability.…  Seguir leyendo »