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MEXICO CITY.- A few months ago, Marcelo Ebrard lost the fight with Claudia Sheinbaum to succeed Andrés Manuel López Obrador. After the resounding triumph of the ruling party in Mexico, which ratified the course set by the Obrador party, Ebrard, who was López Obrador’s chancellor, joined the celebrations in the ruling party bunker and in the Zócalo, and anticipated THE NATION in a short talk The future president of Mexico will be “a counterweight” in the region to President Javier Milei, the new icon of the global right.
“It is a very strong support for the fourth transformation. AND, For the right-wing opposition, it is the end of a cycle that began back in 2000. That kind of position, those arguments, that narrative is a monumental failure. It is going to have a qualitative effect,” said Ebrard, commenting on the first results in Mexico’s presidential election.
“What relationship can Sheinbaum have with the Milei government?” he asked. THE NATION. “It will be a counterweight because the level of support you have, what you maintain, the success you are having, shows that the left is more successful than any right experience“, responded the former chancellor.
The relationship between Mexico and Argentina, very close during the government of Alberto Fernandezwho forged an alliance with López Obrador and was in Morena’s bunker in Mexico City last night, became tense with Milei’s arrival at the Casa Rosada and López Obrador’s clear rejection of his right-wing political profile. After Milei’s election, López Obrador, who usually boasts that he does not interfere in the affairs of other countries, said that his victory was “an own goal,” and compared Milei to dictators such as Francisco Franco, Augusto Pinochet or Jorge Rafael Videla. López Obrador also said that Milei was a “conservative fascist.”
The resounding triumph of Sheinbaum and the “counterweight” that Ebrard now mentioned also predicts a continuity of the new era of distancing between the Casa Rosada and the National Palace in the midst of the global rift between left and right leaders. Milei did not directly congratulate Sheinbaum. The Foreign Ministry issued a brief statement, formal, in which he congratulates Sheinbaum and advocates “to continue developing the bilateral work agenda.”
López Obrador has been one of the leaders with whom Milei clashed on more than one occasion, a list that also includes Gustavo Petrofrom Colombia, or Pedro Sanchez, from Spain, two leaders who did congratulate Sheinbaum, in public and private. The last crossing between Milei and López Obrador occurred a few months ago, when the Argentine president called him “ignorant.”
“That an ignorant person like López Obrador speaks ill of me exalts me,” Milei said in an interview with CNN.
López Obrador did not hesitate to respond. AMLO, as he is called in Mexico, extended his confrontation with the Argentine president and even went so far as to say that he did not understand how the Argentines had voted for him.
“Milei claimed that I am ‘ignorant’ because I called him a ‘conservative brat’. You’re right: I still don’t understand how Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who is not accurate, who despises the people and who dared to accuse his countryman Francis of being a ‘communist’ and ‘representative of the Evil One on earth’, when he is the most Christian Pope and defender of the poor that I have ever known or had news of,” said the Mexican president.
Experts hope that Sheinbaum’s promise of “continuity with change” will also spill over into his foreign policy, where they anticipate changes with nuances, but without any reversals. With few exceptions, López Obrador showed little interest in international affairs, and was notably minimalist in his trips abroad, always privileging the tour of the country. Sheinbaum, it is expected, will have another link with the world, anchored in her profile as a scientist and her concern for the environment and development.
Sheinbaum spoke briefly about what Mexico’s foreign policy will be in his victory speech at the Hilton hotel in downtown Mexico City. In his message, which was long dedicated to drawing up the guidelines that his future government will have in domestic affairs, Sheinbaum promised to maintain “friendly relations” with everyone, and respect the principle of non-interference of the Mexican constitution.
“We will continue with a foreign policy based on our constitutional principles of non-intervention,” said the future president, who set three other major guidelines: International cooperation for development; self-determination of peoples, and construction of peace.
“With the United States there will be a relationship of friendship, mutual respect and equality as it has been until now and we will always defend the Mexicans who are on the other side of the border,” he anticipated. “With the south and the Caribbean we will continue to expand our friendly relations with the whole world,” she defined.
The main link will be, as it has historically been, with the United States. President Joe Biden, who needs the Mexican government to control migration to the country’s southern border, greeted her quickly – it took López Obrador 38 days to greet him when he defeated Donald Trump in 2020 – and said he hopes to continue working closely with a “ spirit of association and friendship.” Sheinbaum thanked him shortly after and spoke of “continuing to collaborate for the benefit of our people and our nations, as neighbors, partners and friends that we are.”
Biden called Sheinbaum this Monday to congratulate her on her victory and they talked about associations between both countries, as she herself confirmed on her X account.
“I received a congratulatory call from President Joe Biden. In a friendly and cordial manner, we both express our desire to continue strengthening the Mexico-United States relationship in the field of trade and friendship between our peoples, with respect for our sovereignties,” Sheinbaum posted.
