Mexico reinstates adviser who quit for arranging Trump visit

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto moved to bolster relations with the incoming Trump administration on Wednesday, naming a new foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, who had cultivated ties with the Trump campaign before the election and who has economic expertise at a time when issues of crossborder trade are of crucial importance for Mexico.

The Cabinet shuffle is a stunning reversal of fortune for Videgaray, who was ousted in the wake of Trump’s visit to Mexico last year.

As finance minister, Videgaray served as a behind-the-scenes liaison to the Trump campaign and advocated for Trump to visit Mexico as a way to calm financial markets and establish a relationship with the then-Republican candidate in the event that he won the election.

The August visit outraged Mexicans who believed that Pena Nieto was bowing down to a candidate who had been harshly critical of Mexicans, including his references to Mexicans as criminals and rapists and his calls to build a border wall and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Videgaray lost his job in the aftermath of the visit, but his stock has been rising ever since Trump’s victory.

His appointment as foreign minister, announced by Pena Nieto at the presidential palace, essentially rewards Videgaray for guessing correctly on Trump’s election. It also recognizes the importance of his relationship with Trump’s transition team as well as his economic expertise in a time when trade ties between Mexico and the United States are being tested. Trump has vowed to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has guided economic relations between the two countries for more than two decades.