That or clearer. The appointment of Esteban Moctezuma as Martha Bárcena’s replacement at the Mexican Embassy in the United States is a demonstration that a major bilateral relationship is not in the priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It is also the ratification of the phrasing of the congratulatory letter he sent to Joe Biden for his victory in the presidential election, which, as the press reflected, snouted grumpy and produced more estprochement than rapprochement. As one veteran social media observer mentioned, it was better not to congratulate Biden than to congratulate him that way. Without waiting for the course of his morning rituals, which have a rhythm to emphasize propaganda above all things, López Obrador rushed yesterday into the morning to announce that Mexico’s new ambassador to the United States government. The surprise was huge for many. López Obrador let Martha Bárcena, an experienced and highly professional diplomat, go and opted for a foreign policy bison with no connections in Washington. López Obrador, once again improvising, although on this occasion, is so clear the message he has given, that it was probably not the result of another occurrence.
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He got rid of Moctezuma, whom he never stopped mentioning as an “aristocrat,” but instead of retiring him or looking for a more ad hoc place – if he wanted to get him out of Mexico, why didn’t he name him at Unicef? – he’ll send him to Washington, telling america’s incoming government: the bilateral relationship is not a priority. Ido Trump, who was handed over and ceded Mexican sovereignty, walks away from Biden to whom he warns – correctly, though questionable by discretion – and without diplomacy in between, that he will not now cross the line. Bullies and tantrums over Trump’s defeat, we have to tell the president, a bilateral relationship is not built. Nor was he doing submission, as he did with the still white house tenant. López Obrador had options to replace Bárcena, but he overlooked them. The best, by far, that of Lazarus Cardenas Batel, his coordinator of advisors, who knows Washington, where he spent a long time, and also, as a product of his old relationships, has friends very close to Biden. But the analysis of strengths is not the strength of López Obrador, a great trigger with shotgun for occurrences or phobias. That’s what he did with the appointment of Moctezuma, who raised eyebrows in Mexico City, including the same secretary of education, who learned of his new assignment on the eve. Moctezuma will have to heal The wounds left by López Obrador with the Democrats, and perhaps prove that his appointment, a disdain for Mexico’s most important bilateral relationship, does not follow the president’s anger with Biden because, at least until the time of appointment, he has not taken the call. Ebrard continues to work to make him suddenly, as he revealed on Tuesday. In any case, it will be a difficult landing for Moctezuma. The plocet, for the time being, will probably not be prosecuted until after January 20, when Biden assumes the presidency, and in the weeks following him will come the entire wave of appointments in his administration once his secretaries and secretaries are ratified in the Capitol, so it is difficult for the appointment to be processed. The new ambassador will have time to prepare, not only on the issues of the bilateral agenda, but on how to heal the wounds inflicted by López Obrador on the bilateral relationship. The first, most obvious, is his appointment. They got rid of him by appointing him to Mexico’s most important embassy, so the sign is that the building at 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, the embassy headquarters, very close to the White House, was used as a dumpster by the president to get rid of an official. In Washington there are only representatives of governments who are highly trusted by their heads of state, and who have direct and continuous access as necessary. Moctezuma did not have the confidence of the president, nor continuous access or fluid relationship. The informe that the Embassy of States in Mexico should have done on Moctezuma surely underlines the role that the secretary plays in the cabinet, and his low capacity for influence and impact on the president. Nothing is helped by the little support he always found in López Obrador to do his diplomatic work, in a city where the value of the ambassador or ambassador is directly related to the certainty that what they tell him will reach his boss directly, and what he says is what his boss instructs him to communicate. Without that certainty, the head of the mission in Washington is dysfunctional. They’ll treat him well, but he won’t solve anything important. The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs will manage bilateral policy from La Alameda, without the frictions they always had with Bárcena. Either way, it won’t be comfortable for Ebrard to have Moctezuma, whom he didn’t promote. He’s at a lot of disadvantage. The new ambassador’s window will not be in the presidential office, but in the direction for North America headed by Roberto Velasco, who does know how things are handled in the United States, is related to Democrats and moves easily in Washington.Moctezuma will occupy the Embassy almost as a formality, as his appointment, given his profile and his remoteness of the president at such a delicate time in the bilateral relationship , particularly because of the reform of the National Security Act, the only thing that proves, until proven otherwise, is that President López Obrador, an intense and fundamental relationship with President Biden, cares little.
Original source in Spanish
