Most Mexicans Think Mexico and US Share Good Relations
Despite political drama, Mexicans are more positive about US relations than they have been in years.
Four years ago, relations between the United States and Mexico seemed to be destined for serious trouble.
To the north, President Donald Trump had arrived to office with an infamous signature promise: build a wall, and have Mexico pay for it. Meanwhile, late 2018 saw Andrés Manuel López Obrador (popularly known as AMLO) clinch victory with an outright majority of votes. The three-time runner-up ran on a nationalist platform that emphasized, among other things, opposition to historical US policies on migration and trade. In sum, a recipe for conflict between the veteran leftist and his conservative counterpart in Washington.
However, it bears repeating that the US–Mexico relationship has continued to be strong over the years. AMLO correctly understood Trump’s more transactional foreign policy and some degree of pragmatism persisted despite ideological differences. Case in point: the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), ratified over 2019 and 2020 by both countries alongside Canada in a renegotiation of the 1990s-era North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The arrival of President Joe Biden in early 2021 has not changed a whole lot in that regard. While there have been disagreements over energy policy and approach to regional integration insofar as autocracies such as Cuba and Venezuela are concerned, economic relations remain solid. The US has always been Mexico’s largest trade partner, but this year saw Mexico become the same for its northern neighbor for the first time in decades, displacing China. Both countries have also signed key agreements on migration and investment in Central America, reflecting necessary cooperation where necessary.
Which isn’t to say this warm relationship will last forever. Multiple major Republican officials, for example, have floated the prospect of either bombing or using the US military against cartels in Mexico, an idea bound to be rejected deeply by either AMLO or his successor.
Per a survey by the Pew Research Center, Mexicans are more positive on the state of their country’s relations with Mexico than they have been in years. And this is at the core of the discussion: extensive people-to-people ties, including the millions of Mexicans living in the US (and more than a few digital nomads in Mexico City), will underpin both countries’ most important relationship for years to come.