The appointment of Roberto Velasco, a young official specializing in relations with the US, as the new Secretary of Foreign Affairs represents a commitment to generational change for a department with multiple open fronts
Roberto Velasco, who has been chosen to be Mexico’s next secretary of foreign affairs, embodies two of the qualities most valued by President Claudia Sheinbaum: technical expertise and generational renewal. “A young man is joining the Secretariat,” the president announced on Wednesday, referring to Velasco as Mexico’s new Foreign Affairs Secretary. It had been almost a century since the country had such a young person at the helm of the department. For Velasco, 38, this position is the latest step in a meteoric political career that officially began in 2018, when Marcelo Ebrard, now Secretary of Economy but then Foreign Secretary under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, brought him on as Director of Social Communication. Since then, Velasco has served as Director General for North America, Unit Chief and Undersecretary. Now he takes over at the top of the department from Juan Ramón de la Fuente, who is stepping down due to health issues.
The appointment is primarily aimed at strengthening the Cabinet in anticipation of future attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump, by placing an experienced figure at the forefront—someone who has, in effect, already taken the reins on occasion. Velasco will face the challenge of leading Mexican diplomacy, with the complex negotiations with its northern neighbor as the top priority, but not the only one. From the resumption of diplomatic relations with Spain and the negotiations for the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA), to the potential formation of a regional progressive front with Brazil and Colombia, Mexico’s foreign policy agenda is accumulating numerous open fronts in an increasingly turbulent international landscape
It had been rumored for days: Juan Ramón de la Fuente, 74, was going to leave the department due to his back problems. His condition, which had already required two surgeries, necessitates further rehabilitation. During one of those procedures, in December, De la Fuente had already handed the reins to Velasco, who performed his duties as acting secretary until De la Fuente’s return a month later. This period as acting secretary coincided precisely with the prelude to one of the most recent global crises. Trump inaugurated 2026 with an attack on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Months earlier, Mexico had maintained a critical stance toward the United States’ interventionist plans and even offered to mediate in the conflict.
Pending Senate confirmation, Sheinbaum has chosen Velasco as the new secretary. “He is not only an expert in international relations, particularly with the U.S. and Canada, which is his primary role, but he also has extensive knowledge of Mexican foreign policy and has done an outstanding job as Undersecretary. I am very pleased,” the president stated. Discreet, loyal, and extremely disciplined, Velasco has been Sheinbaum’s key ally in relations with the U.S. and in negotiations with Donald Trump from the outset.
A lawyer by trade, Velasco has been present on all the phone calls between both governments and has been sent to Washington along with the security czar, Omar García Harfuch, during the most critical moments in the bilateral relationship. On occasion, he was even sent ahead of De la Fuente. According to some sources close to the government, these moves were fully agreed upon.
This leading role has earned Velasco the president’s complete trust. “He has become a specialist on the United States, and that’s not very common in this administration,” says a source familiar with the Foreign Affairs Secretariat. His knowledge of Mexico’s main trading partner has allowed him to maintain the same position under three different secretaries (Ebrard, Alicia Bárcena, and De la Fuente) and two presidents, López Obrador and Sheinbaum. “It shows he has the talent, the discipline, and the foundation. It’s an exceptional track record,” the same source summarizes, adding that “his appointment formalizes work that [Velasco] was already doing.”
Among the containment policies implemented by the Mexican department in response to Trump’s policies is the fight against arms trafficking, a long-standing Mexican demand. This issue has gained even more momentum since the previous presidential term and has become increasingly relevant in the current turbulent context of the bilateral relationship. It is one of Mexico’s key strategies to counter the barrage of attacks from the U.S. who, under the guise of fighting the cartels, has even threatened military intervention on Mexican soil. Last September, a small step was taken with the signing of a bilateral agreement that incentivized the tracking of arms flows south. This was the first outcome following the visit of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced the creation of a new high-level group to combat drug trafficking.
Round trip with Ebrard
Raised in a middle-class family in Mexico City, Roberto Velasco entered politics in 2008 as a youth leader of Convergencia (later Movimiento Ciudadano), the party that his uncle Cuauhtémoc Velasco had helped found and that had been part of the coalition that propelled López Obrador in his 2006 presidential race. That connection led him to work with Ebrard when the latter was head of government of Mexico City.
After earning a master’s degree in Public Policy in Chicago, serving as editor-in-chief of the Chicago Policy Review, and working in the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel (Barack Obama’s right-hand man), Velasco returned in 2018 to work with Ebrard again, when the politician was helping, among other things, López Obrador cultivate relationships with the first Trump administration. Now, one of his main tasks will place him side-by-side with his mentor once more in the negotiations for the renewal of the USMCA, which began a couple of weeks ago. Mexico and Canada are pushing for a swift renewal, but Trump has threatened on several occasions to withdraw from the treaty, true to his aggressive and unpredictable negotiating style.
On Mexico’s foreign policy agenda, the resumption of diplomatic relations with Spain also stands out. These relations had been virtually severed since 2019, following the controversial letter from the former Mexican president requesting an apology from King Felipe VI for the Conquest, and the Spanish government’s subsequent rejection of the letter. After a couple of recent gestures from both the government and the king, the thaw is now underway, and it will be up to Velasco to chart the course of this new normal.
A possible rapprochement with Colombia and Brazil is also on the agenda, aiming to consolidate a kind of progressive axis in the region. A first step in this direction was their joint criticism of the war in Iran. Last year, Sheinbaum, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro sought greater Latin American unity during the CELAC summit held in Honduras, which was overshadowed at the time by Trump’s trade war. “He is a person who prepares himself intellectually, he tries to make relationships and connections with people who know,” says a source close to the lawyer: “One virtue he offers to the government is that he understands the coalition he is in, he is a natural with businesspeople, and he has the ability to connect with very different actors.”
