Mexico’s president is already troubling Washington

Some analysts fear that Morena, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s party has pushed to consolidate too much power under the president, eroding Mexico’s democratic institutions. 

If first impressions mean anything, U.S.-Mexico ties are off to a rocky start under new President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM PARDO.The trouble started with the invite list. Mexico’s new president invited Russian leader VLADIMIR PUTIN, Venezuelan President NICOLAS MADURO and Cuban President MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL to her inauguration, drawing immediate ire from U.S. and European countries (including Ukraine). She also sparked a major row with a key European power after she opted not to invite Spain’s King FELIPE VI to the festivities, arguing he should respond for Spanish atrocities during the conquest of the Americas.

And since then, she has vowed to play hardball with the U.S. on issues like migration, trade and the future of bilateral security partnerships. Sheinbaum vowed at her inauguration that she would “always defend the grandeur of Mexico and promote relationships of respect, never of subordination” in her foreign policy.

Among those angered by her inauguration invites to Maduro and Putin (neither of whom ultimately attended) is Sen. JIM RISCH (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Inviting such international criminals to one’s presidential inauguration is inconsistent with Mexico’s democratic ideals and our shared interest in a secure, prosperous and democratic Western Hemisphere,” he told NatSec Daily.

Mexico is not just one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners and a major hub for U.S. investment, it’s also a critical security partner in the fight against illicit criminal networks and drug cartels. Those partnerships struggled under Sheinbaum’s predecessor, the populist ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR, when Mexico faced new waves of cartel violence.

And of course, Mexico plays a key role in managing the flow of migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, as the entire region struggles to respond to an increasingly globalized migrant crisis.

A former U.S. official, granted anonymity to speak freely about the bilateral relationship, warned that a controversial proposal to house the country’s national guard, the main security force tasked with combating the cartels, under the military would likely require a huge revision in how both the U.S. and Mexico collaborate on bilateral security challenges. Sheinbaum has supported this proposal.

Some analysts also fear that Morena, Sheinbaum’s party has pushed to consolidate too much power under the president, eroding Mexico’s democratic institutions. KAREN ANTEBI, a former senior Mexican diplomat, told NatSec Daily that Sheinbaum “takes office with an unprecedented concentration of power.”

The Mexican Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from today’s lead NatSec Daily host.

The Biden administration is pulling out the stops to ensure that the bilateral relationship doesn’t suffer like it did under López Obrador. The White House sent a large delegation helmed by First Lady JILL BIDEN to Sheinbaum’s inauguration in Mexico City. And Vice President KAMALA HARRIS spoke with Sheinbaum shortly after her victory in June.

“Both sides, but I certainly think the United States, should make a very strong effort to set up a problem-solving relationship with the new government and to build trust, but we’re going to have to see how successful that will be,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico EARL ANTHONY WAYNE.

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