Latest news with #PalacioNacional
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mexico's ‘Give Trump All He Wants' Policy
In her public appearances and on social media, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has become a symbol of fearless resistance to the Trump administration's bullying. She has delivered defiant speeches before huge crowds. When Trump trolled her nation with his 'Gulf of America' stunt, she trolled right back: At a press conference, she displayed an antique map that labeled most of the present-day United States as 'Mexican America.' Her methods have appeared to gain a measure of respect. Almost alone among U.S. allies and partners, Mexico has been spared Donald Trump's barrage of insults and threats. Canada is mocked almost daily. The administration expresses intentions to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone. The administration has also doomed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers by shutting off vital assistance. By contrast, Trump has lavished praise on Sheinbaum, calling her 'tough' and 'a wonderful woman.' Vice President J. D. Vance, who urged military action against Mexico during his service in the Senate, has gone quiet. Other American allies must be impressed and envious. What's Sheinbaum's secret? How is she saving her country from the Trump-Vance flex? The answer is straightforward, but not the one that the Palacio Nacional's social-media operation is trying to project. Contrary to appearances, the Sheinbaum secret is appeasement. The reason Mexico's president has not been called out for her Trump-complaisance is that the country's political opposition and independent media are too crushed to name the policy for what it is. But the evidence is in. [David Frum: The 'Gulf of America' is an admission of defeat] President Trump has made six big demands of Mexico. Sheinbaum has granted them all. Let's proceed, one by one: He wants much more active Mexican cooperation on immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. He wants Mexico to receive people deported from the United States, including people who are not Mexican nationals. He wants Mexico to adopt a more militarized approach to drug interdiction. He wants a new tariff regime to shift more North American manufacturing from Mexico to the United States. He wants Mexico to join U.S. trade actions against China. He wants Mexico to submit politely to this shakedown, and not make too much fuss. First, Mexico has helped Trump seal the border. In February, apprehensions at the border dropped below 9,000 for the month, the lowest level since the 1960s. Meanwhile, the Center for Immigration Studies, an immigration-skeptic group, estimates that U.S. border authorities are catching close to 95 percent of would-be crossers; if so, this means that successful crossings have trickled down to likely the lowest level since the Great Depression. Mexican cooperation has been indispensable to slowing the flow. From Sheinbaum's entry into office on October 1, 2024, to the end of that year, Mexico detained almost 500,000 migrants en route to the United States. Conditions in Mexican detention centers are notoriously harsh: They are densely crowded, with insufficient food and water and scant toilet facilities; ordinary migrants are mingled with violent gang members. Mexico's national human-rights commission has difficulty gaining access to such sites. The high likelihood of ending a thousand-mile journey in a Mexican prison exerts a powerful deterrent effect on would-be immigrants. So do the intense military operations on the Mexico-Guatemala border. During the Mexican presidential campaign of 2024, immigrants and their advocates expressed hope for a more permissive attitude from Sheinbaum. Instead, Sheinbaum has aligned Mexican policy with Trump's edicts. Sheinbaum has also acceded to Trump's second wish, creating a new program to ease the return of Mexicans deported by the United States. Deportees will be met on arrival, provided with Mexican identity documents, and enrolled in Mexico's health-care programs. Sheinbaum has indicated willingness to accept non-Mexican deportees and share responsibility for returning them to their home countries, in Central America or elsewhere. Trump's third wish—the militarization of drug interdiction—must have been even more difficult for Sheinbaum to grant. For a generation, opposition to a militarized approach to drugs has been a defining issue for the Mexican left, which regarded the country's deadly drug war as a futile effort to protect Americans from their own country's social ills. 'Hugs, not bullets' was the slogan of Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. As president, however, Sheinbaum has yielded to American pressure. In February, she delivered 29 cartel figures from Mexican custody to U.S. authorities. Extradition was another historical pain point for the Mexican left, with its implied premise that American justice superseded Mexican sovereignty. Sheinbaum dramatically departed from past Mexican practice to surrender the wanted men. Beyond the symbolism of that surrender, bigger things are happening. Sheinbaum has granted permission for U.S. drone surveillance inside Mexico. CNN has reported that the U.S. is even flying Reapers, UAV systems that can carry a missile. For now, apparently, the Reapers fly unarmed, but the instruments for an American air war against cartels are already in place over Mexico. Sheinbaum has also yielded to U.S. pressure on Trump's fourth wish: Acquiescence to his tariffs. Unlike Canada, which has countered U.S. tariffs with a retaliatory regime of its own, Mexico has not yet responded in kind, even after Trump's March 26 tariffs on Mexican auto exports. On Wednesday night, Mexico's economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, did hint in a social-media post that Mexican forbearance may at last be coming to an end—or it may not, because Mexican reaction to Trump tariffs has been impelled by considerations very different from Canada's. Although the U.S.-Canada-Mexico relationship is in theory a trilateral one, in practice it's a pair of bilateral deals: U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico. Canada and Mexico have each often sacrificed free-trade ideals to gain national advantage at the expense of the other U.S. trading partner. In the 2020 trade round, Canada tried to score off Mexico by writing a $16-an-hour minimum wage into the regulation of North American trade in automobiles and auto parts. The Canadian scheme backfired, however, when Mexican manufacturers opted out of the free-trade structure designed to keep wages low, correctly calculating that they could out-compete Canada even without tariff-free access to the U.S. marketplace: In 2020, Mexican auto exports to the United States overtook Canadian exports. Sheinbaum seems willing to stay neutral in the U.S.-Canada trade war in hope of collecting an additional share of the U.S. spoils. On wish five, Sheinbaum is again complying. At the end of February, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that Mexico had offered to match U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports. Canada, struggling to preserve the remnants of a global free-trade system, has so far opposed this carve-up of the world into trading blocs. Finally, Mexico has also granted Trump's sixth wish. Trump cares enormously about deference to his power. Canadian politicians have retorted to Trump's demeaning comments, most famously in then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's televised March 4 words: 'Now, it's not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal. But, Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.' Trudeau called Trump by his first name and condemned his decision as 'dumb.' Trump and his vice president use rhetoric like that all the time, but they intensely resent its being returned upon them. Sheinbaum, by contrast, never mentions Trump by name when she replies to U.S. actions against Mexico, not even with her jibe about 'America Mexicana.' She is careful not to contradict him in public, and her tight-mouthed restraint earned compliments from Trump. [David Frum: The failing state next door] Sheinbaum's Trump wish fulfillment, especially on immigration, may be good neighborliness that ought to be expected from any Mexican government. But have her methods succeeded in defending Mexico from Trump's protectionism and aggression? Can they be emulated by others? The answers are 'not really,' and 'no.' Mexico has not been exempted from Trump's economic warfare against former partners, culminating in yesterday's tariff attack on imports of cars, trucks, and auto components. Mexico is accepting an intrusive and growing U.S. military presence in its airspace that may yet trigger open warfare between the United States and Mexican cartels on Mexican soil. Although Mexico has gained auto-manufacturing share at Canada's expense since the first Trump administration, Mexican hopes of nearshoring industrial capacity at China's expense have not come to pass and may now be dashed utterly by Trump's latest moves to reduce or stop international trade. Trump wants any nearshoring to occur in the United States itself, to benefit his voters in red states. Things could certainly be worse for Mexico than they are. López Obrador bequeathed a great many vulnerabilities to his successor. He left Mexico with its biggest budget deficit since the catastrophic debt crisis of the early 1980s, exposing the country to exactly the kind of international financial pressure he himself so constantly denounced in speeches. But 'things could be worse' is a very limited sort of success. Sheinbaum's strategy seems to be to succeed only in the sense that others are losing even more. Even if Sheinbaum's appeasement approach were Mexico's best option, her model cannot be emulated by other states, especially democratic ones. A prerequisite for her strategy is that she leads a society that is consolidating into a one-party state, with a media subject to ever more stringent restrictions and government control. A major reason for Trudeau's snarky comments to Trump is that Canada is confronting the Trump tariffs at a time of intense political competition. In the federal election scheduled for April 28, Conservatives and Liberals are battling to position themselves as the tougher anti-Trump alternative. Sheinbaum can afford to submit to Trump's coercion because she commands overwhelming majorities in Congress, doesn't face the next round of congressional elections until 2027, and has put in place mechanisms to manipulate those elections when they finally come. Sheinbaum's political biography is that of a cadre of the left. But today, the most important political cleft is not the fading distinction between right and left, but the rising conflict between liberal and illiberal, democratic and autocratic. As Mexico follows America into illiberality, Mexico's leadership finds itself surprisingly favored by Trump's Washington, along with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and El Salvador. In contrast, the formerly close U.S. ally Canada is consigned to join Ukraine, Denmark, Panama, and the democracies of Europe and East Asia on the Trump enemies list. Sheinbaum's policy of Trump appeasement may well be the least-bad course open to Mexico. But it should be seen for what it is, not misunderstood as the brave resistance it most definitely is not. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Atlantic
Mexico's ‘Give Trump All He Wants' Policy
In her public appearances and on social media, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has become a symbol of fearless resistance to the Trump administration's bullying. She has delivered defiant speeches before huge crowds. When Trump trolled her nation with his 'Gulf of America' stunt, she trolled right back: At a press conference, she displayed an antique map that labeled most of the present-day United States as 'Mexican America.' Her methods have appeared to gain a measure of respect. Almost alone among U.S. allies and partners, Mexico has been spared Donald Trump's barrage of insults and threats. Canada is mocked almost daily. The administration expresses intentions to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone. The administration has also doomed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers by shutting off vital assistance. By contrast, Trump has lavished praise on Sheinbaum, calling her 'tough' and 'a wonderful woman.' Vice President J. D. Vance, who urged military action against Mexico during his service in the Senate, has gone quiet. Other American allies must be impressed and envious. What's Sheinbaum's secret? How is she saving her country from the Trump-Vance flex? The answer is straightforward, but not the one that the Palacio Nacional's social-media operation is trying to project. Contrary to appearances, the Sheinbaum secret is appeasement. The reason Mexico's president has not been called out for her Trump-complaisance is that the country's political opposition and independent media are too crushed to name the policy for what it is. But the evidence is in. David Frum: The 'Gulf of America' is an admission of defeat President Trump has made six big demands of Mexico. Sheinbaum has granted them all. Let's proceed, one by one: He wants much more active Mexican cooperation on immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. He wants Mexico to receive people deported from the United States, including people who are not Mexican nationals. He wants Mexico to adopt a more militarized approach to drug interdiction. He wants a new tariff regime to shift more North American manufacturing from Mexico to the United States. He wants Mexico to join U.S. trade actions against China. He wants Mexico to submit politely to this shakedown, and not make too much fuss. First, Mexico has helped Trump seal the border. In February, apprehensions at the border dropped below 9,000 for the month, the lowest level since the 1960s. Meanwhile, the Center for Immigration Studies, an immigration-skeptic group, estimates that U.S. border authorities are catching close to 95 percent of would-be crossers; if so, this means that successful crossings have trickled down to likely the lowest level since the Great Depression. Mexican cooperation has been indispensable to slowing the flow. From Sheinbaum's entry into office on October 1, 2024, to the end of that year, Mexico detained almost 500,000 migrants en route to the United States. Conditions in Mexican detention centers are notoriously harsh: They are densely crowded, with insufficient food and water and scant toilet facilities; ordinary migrants are mingled with violent gang members. Mexico's national human-rights commission has difficulty gaining access to such sites. The high likelihood of ending a thousand-mile journey in a Mexican prison exerts a powerful deterrent effect on would-be immigrants. So do the intense military operations on the Mexico-Guatemala border. During the Mexican presidential campaign of 2024, immigrants and their advocates expressed hope for a more permissive attitude from Sheinbaum. Instead, Sheinbaum has aligned Mexican policy with Trump's edicts. Sheinbaum has also acceded to Trump's second wish, creating a new program to ease the return of Mexicans deported by the United States. Deportees will be met on arrival, provided with Mexican identity documents, and enrolled in Mexico's health-care programs. Sheinbaum has indicated willingness to accept non-Mexican deportees and share responsibility for returning them to their home countries, in Central America or elsewhere. Trump's third wish—the militarization of drug interdiction—must have been even more difficult for Sheinbaum to grant. For a generation, opposition to a militarized approach to drugs has been a defining issue for the Mexican left, which regarded the country's deadly drug war as a futile effort to protect Americans from their own country's social ills. 'Hugs, not bullets' was the slogan of Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. As president, however, Sheinbaum has yielded to American pressure. In February, she delivered 29 cartel figures from Mexican custody to U.S. authorities. Extradition was another historical pain point for the Mexican left, with its implied premise that American justice superseded Mexican sovereignty. Sheinbaum dramatically departed from past Mexican practice to surrender the wanted men. Beyond the symbolism of that surrender, bigger things are happening. Sheinbaum has granted permission for U.S. drone surveillance inside Mexico. CNN has reported that the U.S. is even flying Reapers, UAV systems that can carry a missile. For now, apparently, the Reapers fly unarmed, but the instruments for an American air war against cartels are already in place over Mexico. Sheinbaum has also yielded to U.S. pressure on Trump's fourth wish: Acquiescence to his tariffs. Unlike Canada, which has countered U.S. tariffs with a retaliatory regime of its own, Mexico has not yet responded in kind, even after Trump's March 26 tariffs on Mexican auto exports. On Wednesday night, Mexico's economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, did hint in a social-media post that Mexican forbearance may at last be coming to an end—or it may not, because Mexican reaction to Trump tariffs has been impelled by considerations very different from Canada's. Although the U.S.-Canada-Mexico relationship is in theory a trilateral one, in practice it's a pair of bilateral deals: U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico. Canada and Mexico have each often sacrificed free-trade ideals to gain national advantage at the expense of the other U.S. trading partner. In the 2020 trade round, Canada tried to score off Mexico by writing a $16-an-hour minimum wage into the regulation of North American trade in automobiles and auto parts. The Canadian scheme backfired, however, when Mexican manufacturers opted out of the free-trade structure designed to keep wages low, correctly calculating that they could out-compete Canada even without tariff-free access to the U.S. marketplace: In 2020, Mexican auto exports to the United States overtook Canadian exports. Sheinbaum seems willing to stay neutral in the U.S.-Canada trade war in hope of collecting an additional share of the U.S. spoils. On wish five, Sheinbaum is again complying. At the end of February, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed that Mexico had offered to match U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports. Canada, struggling to preserve the remnants of a global free-trade system, has so far opposed this carve-up of the world into trading blocs. Finally, Mexico has also granted Trump's sixth wish. Trump cares enormously about deference to his power. Canadian politicians have retorted to Trump's demeaning comments, most famously in then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's televised March 4 words: 'Now, it's not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal. But, Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.' Trudeau called Trump by his first name and condemned his decision as 'dumb.' Trump and his vice president use rhetoric like that all the time, but they intensely resent its being returned upon them. Sheinbaum, by contrast, never mentions Trump by name when she replies to U.S. actions against Mexico, not even with her jibe about 'America Mexicana.' She is careful not to contradict him in public, and her tight-mouthed restraint earned compliments from Trump. David Frum: The failing state next door Sheinbaum's Trump wish fulfillment, especially on immigration, may be good neighborliness that ought to be expected from any Mexican government. But have her methods succeeded in defending Mexico from Trump's protectionism and aggression? Can they be emulated by others? The answers are 'not really,' and 'no.' Mexico has not been exempted from Trump's economic warfare against former partners, culminating in yesterday's tariff attack on imports of cars, trucks, and auto components. Mexico is accepting an intrusive and growing U.S. military presence in its airspace that may yet trigger open warfare between the United States and Mexican cartels on Mexican soil. Although Mexico has gained auto-manufacturing share at Canada's expense since the first Trump administration, Mexican hopes of nearshoring industrial capacity at China's expense have not come to pass and may now be dashed utterly by Trump's latest moves to reduce or stop international trade. Trump wants any nearshoring to occur in the United States itself, to benefit his voters in red states. Things could certainly be worse for Mexico than they are. López Obrador bequeathed a great many vulnerabilities to his successor. He left Mexico with its biggest budget deficit since the catastrophic debt crisis of the early 1980s, exposing the country to exactly the kind of international financial pressure he himself so constantly denounced in speeches. But 'things could be worse' is a very limited sort of success. Sheinbaum's strategy seems to be to succeed only in the sense that others are losing even more. Even if Sheinbaum's appeasement approach were Mexico's best option, her model cannot be emulated by other states, especially democratic ones. A prerequisite for her strategy is that she leads a society that is consolidating into a one-party state, with a media subject to ever more stringent restrictions and government control. A major reason for Trudeau's snarky comments to Trump is that Canada is confronting the Trump tariffs at a time of intense political competition. In the federal election scheduled for April 28, Conservatives and Liberals are battling to position themselves as the tougher anti-Trump alternative. Sheinbaum can afford to submit to Trump's coercion because she commands overwhelming majorities in Congress, doesn't face the next round of congressional elections until 2027, and has put in place mechanisms to manipulate those elections when they finally come. Sheinbaum's political biography is that of a cadre of the left. But today, the most important political cleft is not the fading distinction between right and left, but the rising conflict between liberal and illiberal, democratic and autocratic. As Mexico follows America into illiberality, Mexico's leadership finds itself surprisingly favored by Trump's Washington, along with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and El Salvador. In contrast, the formerly close U.S. ally Canada is consigned to join Ukraine, Denmark, Panama, and the democracies of Europe and East Asia on the Trump enemies list. Sheinbaum's policy of Trump appeasement may well be the least-bad course open to Mexico. But it should be seen for what it is, not misunderstood as the brave resistance it most definitely is not.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Yahoo
Mexico City for First-Timers: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
Mexico City—sprawling, electric, and unapologetically alive—is the kind of place that lures you in and never quite lets you go. For first-time visitors, it can feel overwhelming (so many neighborhoods, so much traffic, so much excellent food), but worry not. This is your guide to tackling the city's essential experiences with just the right balance of culture, adventure, and, of course, cocktails. There's no better way to get your bearings than standing in the middle of Mexico City's massive main square, the Zócalo, surrounded by grand colonial buildings, the imposing Metropolitan Cathedral, and the ruins of the Templo Mayor—a stark reminder that beneath this city lies the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. Step inside Palacio Nacional to gawk at Diego Rivera's epic murals depicting Mexico's history, then wander the historic streets lined with cafés, bookshops, and street vendors hawking tacos al pastor so perfect they should be considered a national treasure. Every first-time visitor must make a stop in Coyoacán, the leafy, bohemian neighborhood where Frida Kahlo lived and worked. La Casa Azul (The Blue House) is both shrine and time capsule, filled with her artwork, clothing, and the eerie presence of a life lived in color and pain. Afterward, roam Coyoacán's cobbled streets, stopping for coffee at Café Avellaneda or indulging in churros con chocolate at Churrería El Moro. Yes, Xochimilco is famous for its technicolor party boats, but if you prefer your cultural experiences without beer-soaked chaos, opt for a different kind of trajinera ride. Fuego Vivo offers immersive, fire-lit boat journeys through the ancient canals, complete with live performances. For a deeper dive into pre-Hispanic farming traditions, visit a working chinampa, one of the floating gardens the Aztecs once cultivated, and learn about this UNESCO-recognized agricultural technique while sampling hyper-local produce. Mexico City's trendiest sister neighborhoods, Condesa and Roma, are best explored on foot. Stroll along Parque México and Avenida Álvaro Obregón, popping into design-forward boutiques and art galleries before settling in at one of the city's hottest restaurants. Try Contramar for their legendary tuna tostadas, Máximo Bistrot for farm-to-table magic, or Anonimo for divine Italian with a Mexican twist. Cocktails? Make a reservation at Handshake Speakeasy for serious mixology, or sip mezcal at La Clandestina. A short drive from the city, Teotihuacán is an awe-inspiring archaeological site where you can soar over the massive Pyramid of the Sun in a hot air balloon (if you're feeling ambitious) and gape at the ancient city's precise urban planning. Arrive early to beat the crowds, then refuel at nearby La Gruta, a restaurant dramatically set inside a cave. Nothing like mole and margaritas under stalactites. Chapultepec Park is twice the size of Central Park and home to some of the city's most impressive landmarks, including Chapultepec Castle, which sits atop a hill offering panoramic views. The real showstopper, though, is the National Museum of Anthropology. Even museum-averse travelers will be spellbound by the sheer depth of Mexico's pre-Columbian history, from the iconic Aztec Sun Stone to the Mayan tombs of Palenque. Beyond anthropology, CDMX's art scene is next-level. The Museum of Modern Art (MAM) houses Rivera, Kahlo, and Orozco under one roof, while the Soumaya Museum (with its striking silver, undulating façade) offers everything from Dalí to Degas. Across the street, Museo Jumex curates some of Latin America's most cutting-edge contemporary art. Inside the gilded Palacio de Bellas Artes, Rivera's masterpiece Man at the Crossroads demands your attention. Originally commissioned for Rockefeller Center in New York, the mural was destroyed due to its leftist imagery and later recreated in Mexico City—where it rightfully belongs. Stick around for a performance by the Ballet Folklórico if you can. After a day of cultural immersion, there's no better way to toast to the city than with a cocktail at Samos, the sleek rooftop bar at The Ritz-Carlton Mexico City. The sweeping views stretch across Chapultepec Park to the city skyline, reminding you just how vast (and endlessly intriguing) CDMX really is. Order the mezcal margarita and revel in the fact that you're in one of the greatest cities on earth. If you're up for an unexpected thrill, snag tickets to a Lucha Libre match at Arena México. Think flamboyant costumes, theatrical stunts, and a crowd so electrified you can't help but cheer along. Pair it with a stop at Pulquería Las Duelistas beforehand for a taste of pulque, an ancient fermented agave drink.
