Santa Fe New Mexican

Trump sends top aides to Mexico amid fraying ties

- By Josh Lederman

MEXICO CITY — President Donald Trump dispatched his top diplomat and homeland security chief to Mexico on Wednesday on a fence-mending mission complicate­d by the actual fence he wants to build on the border. Mexico’s government signaled it was in no mood to be lectured by the new U.S. administra­tion.

Ties between the countries have plunged since Trump took office a month ago, punctuated by Trump’s insistence that Mexico pay for a border wall and other demands on illegal immigratio­n and trade. During their brief visit, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will face a Mexican government anxiously rethinking its relationsh­ip with its bigger, richer and more powerful neighbor.

Tillerson arrived in Mexico City late Wednesday, while Mexico was still reeling from the Trump administra­tion’s announceme­nt a day earlier of a deportatio­n crackdown that would sending people to Mexico who cross the border illegally — even if they’re not Mexican citizens.

Kelly, whose department is in charge of implementi­ng Trump’s immigratio­n crackdown, was arriving separately after a visit to Guatemala. The two plan to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto and with Mexico’s top defense, finance and diplomatic officials.

Yet Tillerson’s counterpar­t in Mexico, Luis Videgaray, insisted that his country would not “accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another.”

“We don’t have to, and it is not in the interest of Mexico,” Videgaray said. He hinted that Mexico might seek to challenge Trump’s move at the United Nations or in other internatio­nal bodies.

Still, senior Trump administra­tion officials sought to play down the disagreeme­nts between the countries, describing close cooperatio­n between the two countries on economic prosperity, law enforcemen­t, drug traffickin­g and trade. Reporters were given an official briefing ahead of the trip on condition that officials weren’t quoted by name.

At the White House, press secretary Sean Spicer said the U.S.-Mexican relationsh­ip is “phenomenal.”

“I think there’s an unbelievab­le and robust dialogue between the two nations,” Spicer said.

Trump was in office barely a week when Peña Nieto canceled a planned visit to the U.S. The American leader had suggested their meeting would be ill-advised if Mexico wasn’t willing to pay for the wall, expected to cost billions of dollars. Mexico remained unwilling. A meeting between the two presidents hasn’t been reschedule­d.

The visit by Tillerson and Kelly forms part of a Trump administra­tion trend: top Cabinet and other officials seeking to calm nervous nations that their U.S. partnershi­ps are secure in the new era of “America First.” Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have previously filled the role, facing foreign leaders who’ve struggled to reconcile their rhetoric of reassuranc­e with the declaratio­ns of disruption from Trump and some of his senior envoys.

Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO, and Kelly, a retired Marine general, have taken a more diplomatic tack toward Mexico than Trump, even as they both assume key roles in executing policy that has stirred widespread resentment in America’s southern neighbor.

Anti-Trump protests have erupted. Earlier this month, some 20,000 people marched through Mexico City demanding respect from the U.S. While Peña Nieto has struggled with plummeting approval ratings, his opposition to Trump has rallied many Mexicans around him.

Beyond the wall, Tillerson is likely to face questions about Trump’s pledge to renegotiat­e the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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