Development: On 11 August Mexico’s foreign ministry (SRE) confirmed that the country’s new ambassador to the US will be Miguel Basáñez Ebergenyi, an academic with close political links to President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Significance: Surprisingly for such a key role, the position of Mexican ambassador to the US has been vacant for five months since March, when the incumbent, Eduardo Medina Mora, was appointed to sit on Mexico’s supreme court. Basáñez is an academic with close political links to the ‘Grupo Atlacomulco’ (a loose association within the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional [PRI ] named after the Peña Nieto’s home town in Estado de México). One of the new ambassador’s priorities will be to try and repair the damage caused to bilateral relations by last month’s prison escape by drug kingpin Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán from a Mexican maximum security prison.
- Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade said Basáñez has a “great political and academic record” and was “ideal to represent us in Washington”. An SRE press release added that his job would be to “consolidate bilateral relations and position Mexico as a country undergoing transformation”. In the 1980s Basáñez held various positions in the Estado de México (Edomex) working as state prosecutor and private secretary to former governor Alfredo del Mazo (1981-1986), a second cousin and mentor to President Peña Nieto during his early career (Peña Nieto went on to become governor of Edomex in 2005-2011 before successfully running for the presidency in 2012).
- Basáñez is credited with introducing opinion polling in Mexico; as an academic he has been awarded degrees from a range of universities including the Universidad Autónoma de México (Unam), the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics (LSE). Prior to his appointment he was working as an adjunct professor at Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the US.
- The job will be difficult. Mexico’s reputation has taken a serious blow in the US, following last month’s prison escape by El Chapo. According to a recent report in Mexican daily Reforma, US-Mexico collaboration over arms trafficking has deteriorated because of a lack of trust. US officials have not hidden their concern over the ability of El Chapo and other drug gang leaders to infiltrate and bribe Mexican security forces. With the US presidential elections looming in 2016 some candidates, like Republican hopeful Donald Trump, are taking what some would describe as an aggressive anti-Mexican line on immigration and security issues. The US remains of critical importance to Mexico: bilateral trade is worth US$534bn and an estimated 11.4m Mexicans live north of the border.
Looking Ahead: While many acknowledge the importance of the new ambassador’s political and academic credentials, some have questioned his lack of diplomatic experience. However, Andrew Selee of the US-based Wilson Centre says that the aim of his appointment is to give Mexico “a fresh and trustworthy face in bilateral relations with the US”.
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