Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, stood under a giant Mexican flag and before the troops in a military installation in Mexico City. It was the day of the flag last month and she used her speech as an opportunity, figuratively and literally, to come together.
“Mexico must be respected”, it saidAdding later: “Its inhabitants are courageous. We know that when our people unite around their history, their country and their flag, there is no strength in the world that can break their minds. »»
Times had changed, she said: Mexico would not bow before foreign governments.
Given the circumstances – President Trump’s steep prices against Mexico entered into force in the first minutes on Tuesday – the optics of Ms. Sheinbaum was appropriate. While Mr. Trump again targeted Mexico, using the prices hammer as a negotiation tool, a feeling of Mexican nationalism has been reinforced.
The Mexican government and companies have rekindled a “fact in Mexico” campaign. Some Mexicans have called For boycott American companies and products, while others have drawn up Mexican lists stores And marks To support instead of Americans.
Ms. Sheinbaum is frequently presented on the first page of local newspapers with members of the country’s army or in front of a giant Mexican flag. Private companies have eliminated nationalist advertisements, one with the president leading the masses and carrying a banner saying: “Mexico United, never defeated!”
And Mrs. Sheinbaum, who tried to balance a pro-mexico drum while advocating cooperative dialogue with US officials, saw her approval ratings increase up to 80% A survey. She not only succeeded a popular president, Andres Manuel López Obrador, who reshaped Mexican politics and was her mentor, but proved her at a time of global upheavals under Mr. Trump.
“There is a lot of support for the president now,” said Juan Manuel Sánchez, 57, a craftsman in Mexico City who also congratulated Ms. Sheinbaum’s repression against drug trafficking.
During his first mandate, Trump used prices to renegotiate the North American free trade agreement and conclude a new American-Mexican-Canada agreement, which he signed in 2020. He used similar tactics against Mexico and Canada, while arguing that too many drugs and illegal migrants come from the two countries in the United States.
A month ago, Trump signed an executive decree calling for 25% of the Mexican import prices. But less than a day before entering into force, Mr. Trump and Ms. Sheinbaum spoke on the phone and announced an agreement to delay them for 30 days.
In the words of this agreement, Mexico posted 10,000 additional Mexican National Guard troops on the border to help stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants in the United States. In return, said Sheinbaum, the United States government would endeavor to stop the flow of firearms in Mexico.
Even if the number of migrant passages on the southern border fell at levels once unthinkable since Mr. Trump took office in January, Mexican officials considerably dissipate migration to the United States of months before. Last week, Mexico sent nearly 30 best cartel agents wanted by the American authorities to the United States, one of the greatest transfer of this type in the history of drug war.
“There is a lot of unity in the country in the face of what is happening,” including the economic threats of Mr. Trump, said Sheinbaum on Monday, a few hours before the entry into force.
Although Mr. Trump insisted on Monday that the prices would begin the next day, the cloud above North Mexico has taken advantage since his last presidential campaign. This has led to uncertainty and frustration, but also stimulated national pride.
Agustin Barrios Gómez, former member of the Mexican congress and founding member of the Mexican non -profit council on foreign relations, said that even Mexicans who did not vote for Ms. Sheinbaum “understands that at the moment, the national interest of Mexico – beyond parties of the parties – is to rally to our president.”
One of the reasons for the sharp increase in his support, said Barrios Gómez was to ensure that Ms. Sheinbaum has enough political capital in the country to be in a stronger negotiation position with Trump comes what can.
Nationalism is complicated in Mexico, said Mr. Barrios Gómez because it is so complex linked to the United States geographically, culturally and economically, as well as immigration and security.
“We are not neighbors, we are roommates,” he said. In other words, analysts have said that the American prices against Mexico will harm the two economies, as are the reciprocal rates suggested by Ms. Sheinbaum. (Mr. Trump also threatens separate 25% tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminum, which would affect Mexico.)
For Mexico, the tilting point against the United States has not been reached, said Mr. Barrios Gómez at the end of last week before the entry into force of the prices, but “if you call someone enough into enemy, you could simply transform them into one.”
The specter of a trade war between countries has changed the perception in Mexico of Mr. Trump and his relations with the United States.
According to the Mexican survey company Buendía and MarquézThe number of respondents in Mexico who thought that the relationship between Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Trump was at least lowered between last November and February, while the number of respondents who have a negative opinion on Mr. Trump rose to 80% in mid-February, going from 66% in early January.
Mr. Trump nevertheless praised Mrs. Sheinbaum as a “Wonderful woman” While making fun of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau, who has become more and more unpopular at the house, enters his last days in office while the popular foundation of Mrs. Sheinbaum is stronger. She won elections in a resounding manner last summer and began her six -year term in October.
During her press conference on Monday morning, Ms. Sheinbaum once again called calm before the deadline for Mr. Trump prices and said she hoped to conclude a last minute agreement, which did not materialize. “Obviously, we do not want there to be prices,” she said, adding that her government would respond.
Since before the inauguration of Mr. Trump, her administration has promoted what she calls “Plan Mexico», A strategy intended to diversify its economy to make it less dependent on the United States, to invigorate Mexican manufacturing and propel the country to become one of the 10 best economies in the world. (This is currently the 15th largest, according to at the International Monetary Fund.)
As part of this effort, the administration of Ms. Sheinbaum began the reader “Made in Mexico”, in which an official seal is placed on the products made in the country that meet some requirements. The seal, with an illustration of a Mexican eagle, was created In 1978 to promote Mexican goods and was relaunched by the presidents over the years.
As the threatened American prices were interrupted a month ago, the Secretary of the Economy of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, told companies that the government wanted to push the seal again “Made in Mexico”.
Last week, Walmart Mexico, the country’s largest private employer with 200,000 workers, revealed His efforts to put the “Made in Mexico” seal – with the additional word “proudly” – in the aisles of its 3,000 stores across the country. Although Walmart is an American brand, Javier Treviño, Vice-President Director of Business Affairs of Walmart Mexico, said that the company wanted to show customers that it was a Mexican entity and that most of the products it sells were manufactured in the country.
The campaign “is very important for us because we have to strengthen investments and confidence in Mexico and ensure that the economy can grow, because the environment is not easy,” said Treviño, a former member of the Mexican Congress, in an interview.
Other large companies have joined Ms. Sheinbaum’s push, notably Grupo Modelo, the brewing giant which makes Corona and Modelo beers, which announcement He would put new “Made in Mexico” traffic jams on bottles.
On Saturday, Mr. Sánchez, the craftsman of Mexico City, was on his neighborhood market, which he said, proved that he prefers to buy locally. Before the entry into force of Mr. Trump’s prices, he said that he could consider boycotting American companies and products if they did.
Unlike Canada, where residents avoided American products and bought more Canadian flags since Trump threatened the prices, Sánchez said Mexicans were already nationalist and most had a flag.
“But when something very serious happens here,” he said, “we are all.”
Maria Abi-Habib MEXICO’s contributed report.
