US-Mexico ties in 2019 complicated by trade, immigration and violence

MEXICO CITY－The year of 2019 was one of the most complicated in history for the US-Mexico relationship as the United States continued to exert pressure on Mexico on issues concerning the influx of migrants, uncertainty in the bilateral trade deal and lingering cartel violence, experts told Xinhua.

Gustavo Vega, a professor at the Center for International Studies of the College of Mexico, or Colmex, said that 2019 had been "the most complicated year" for US-Mexico relationship since the 1980s.

"It's the reality of the geographical neighborhood. We have to seek out mechanisms to resolve the problems that continue to arise," said Vega.

An increase in the number of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico toward the US almost derailed the bilateral agenda, with daily threats made against the Mexican government by US President Donald Trump, which included closing its southern border if Mexico did not stop the thousands of migrants attempting to enter the country.

As the monthly immigration rate in May reached its highest point in a decade, and as a result Trump threatened to impose a general tariff on Mexican imports, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised to "take unprecedented steps" to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration.

Following an agreement in June, Mexico sent thousands of national guard troops to enforce immigration law across the country, and the monthly flow of migrants diminished, down from 144,000 people detained by the US to 42,700 people in November, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Dec 26.

However, many of the migrants were either waiting to apply for asylum in the US or had already applied and been returned by US authorities to Mexico to await the outcome of their cases.

Vega said that security was another major issue for the bilateral relationship, due to the violence caused by Mexican drug cartels.

Trump said in late November that he would designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which implied that the US could deport cartel members and their associates as well as freeze their bank accounts.

As early as March, Trump mentioned the possibility of putting the cartels on the terrorist list. And the proposal gained momentum again in November, after the massacre of a dual-national Mormon family in north Mexico. The shocking crime saw cartel hitmen slaughter women and children in a hail of bullets.

The government of Lopez Obrador stated that the designation would be tantamount to "interventionism", and it was more important to combat weapons trafficking from the US to Mexico as it fed organized crime in the country.

Echoing Vega, Guadalupe Gonzalez, associate professor at Colmex, said that 2019 had been "an uncommonly complex" year for the two countries' relations, and the unapproved US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or USMCA, in the US Congress had also increased tensions.

The USMCA was signed in November 2018 to replace the existing North American Free Trade Agreement. It was approved by US House of Representatives on Dec 19, but is yet to be ratified by the Senate.

"This has caused uncertainty for the Mexican economy," Gonzalez said.

"I think that next year will be as difficult or even more difficult than 2019," he added.

Xinhua