MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto moved Wednesday to bolster relations with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, 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 cross-border trade are of critical importance for Mexico.
The Cabinet reshuffle is a reversal of fortune for Videgaray, who was ousted as finance minister after Trump's visit to Mexico last year, and it shows the influence of Trump on the Mexican government's foreign policy strategy.
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 Republican in the event that he won the election.
The August visit angered citizens who believed that Pena Nieto was bowing to a candidate who had been harshly critical of Mexicans, including his referring to Mexicans as criminals and rapists and his calls to build a border wall and deport millions of illegal aliens. Videgaray lost his job in the aftermath of the visit, but his stock has been rising since Trump's victory.
His appointment as foreign minister, announced by Pena Nieto at the presidential palace, 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, and he has pushed for U.S. companies to bring manufacturing jobs home from Mexico.
Videgaray -- a former investment banker who has worked for Pena Nieto for years, starting in Pena Nieto's days as a state governor and rising to be his campaign manager and later finance minister -- is widely considered a top economic mind in the country. Pena Nieto said Videgaray's experience leading the finance ministry, as well as his work with the Group of 20 nations and with Vice President Joe Biden on the economic dialogue between the two countries, "are a fundamental base for his new mission."
Pena Nieto said he has instructed Videgaray, before Trump takes office, to "accelerate the dialogue and the contacts so that from the first day of the new administration we can establish the basis for a constructive working relationship. It should be a relationship that permits us to strengthen the bilateral ties in terms of security, migration, commerce and investment. These objectives should be reached at all times, promoting the interests of Mexico, and without hurting our sovereignty and the dignity of Mexicans."
Since the election, political observers in Mexico have been predicting a return of Videgaray to the top ranks of government. He had maintained contact with the Trump transition team, according to Mexican officials, and had been called a "wonderful man" by Trump.
"Now he will be in charge of softening the relations with the new President Trump because he already has a line of communication with his team," said Francisco Gil Villegas, a political analyst and professor at the College of Mexico. "It's a good decision, but it would have been better if he were ambassador. He would have greater influence, greater possibility of lobbying in Washington. But without a doubt, it's the second-best decision."
Some political observers were more cautious about the appointment, saying it will send the signal domestically that there is no political cost to Trump for bashing Mexico, and that it makes Pena Nieto look increasingly weak and beholden to the new U.S. president. They also criticized him for making so many changes to ambassadors and other diplomats in response to Trump, rather than holding firm to issues of importance to Mexico.
"The problem is not the man, it's the strategy in general," said Juan Carlos Moreno Brid, an economist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He cited rising inflation, tepid economic growth and severe inequality as areas that need more attention from the president. "The problem here is the strategy at the heart of the country, the lack of development that has come with this government."
Pena Nieto during a ceremony Wednesday accepted the resignation of the outgoing foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, who had opposed Trump's visit and who has been traveling the United States to make the case for Mexico's importance to the American economy.
Information for this article was contributed by Gabriela Martinez of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/05/2017