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…