Mexico city – The president stood in the middle of the admiring crowd and declared victory.
“We gathered here to congratulate ourselves because relationships with the United States, with his government dialogue and respect,” told President Claudia Sheinbaum to the Multitudes present, which were gathered in the historical central plaza of the capital in a mega event.
Sheinbaum's triumph on March 9th dramatized how it has so far been an extremely precarious, tight rope: to appease President Trump and to shift the fulfillment of most of his endangered tariffs, while at the same time convincing the Mexican colleagues that they cannot be a national souvereigy to -in order to bring the already supported economy into the recession that has already Recession in the recision could bring into the import that could bring the already shaky economy into economy into the recession.
“We will always give respect for our beloved country and our blessed nation,” said Sheinbaum.
Her conscientious calibrated answers – she repeatedly emphasizes the need to keep a “cool head” at collective bargaining – Sheinbaum received a reputation as a kind of Trump Whisperer, a rare national leader who apparently found out how to play the Mercurial New Yorker. Your phone calls with Trump contributed twice to satisfy the introduction of new tariffs.
Thousands of supporters take part in a rally when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks on March 9 in the Zócalo in Mexico town. The rally was held after President Trump held during the break in Mexico a few days earlier.
(Anadolu about Getty Images)
Many Mexicans welcome Sheinbaum's handling of a delicate location.
“It is difficult if you have to negotiate the economic future of your country with someone like Trump who says something else today,” said Laura Mendoza, 36, who runs a business in the capital sales of nutritional goods. “She faces many challenges. We have to give her time. The many problems of this country will not be solved in a few months. “
The US President himself praised Sheinbaum as a “wonderful woman”, a strong contrast to his habitual commitment to other world leaders, especially the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In contrast to Trudeau, who displaced Trump and described his import taxes as a “stupid idea”, Sheinbaum kept the tone of her public comments directly but civilianPresent Even when Trump denounced an “unbearable alliance” between her government and organized crimes. She also took measures.
Sheinbaum sent troops to the northern border to deter the illegal immigration, and started a procedure for the law enforcement authorities, in which the arrests of alleged drug king, almost daily decreases of drug laboratories and seizures of fentanyl were reduced, which were accused of thousands of thousands of US deaths.
Her government even handed over 29 alleged drug cartel leaders to Washington in a quick procedure in which formal delivery procedures were avoided.
It seems that the approach of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the direct confrontations with the cartels to finance social programs to prevent endangered young people from organized crime – under Mexual employees, under which the financing of Mexuals, under which the “hug” Apparently the approach of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
So far, the US criminal prosecution authorities, who had a tense relationship with President López Obrador, have praised the cooperation between Sheinbaum in sometimes sensitive operations, including increased Secret CIA drone flights via Mexico, and mostly praised during obvious searches for illegal drug laboratories.
Apart from the fact that international praise with the Mexican President of the Mexico is really popular among many, if not most Mexicans, despite the inevitable complaints about the country's apparently insoluble problems – in the apparently insoluble crime, rising prices, deeply anchored corruption.
Surveys have shown that Sheinbaum, which took up his office on October 1, exceeded 70%with extraordinary approval ratings.
However, some are wondering how much of its popularity on shaky soil, a potentially short -lived remnant from the permanent affection for López Obrador, who showered help for needy Mexicans. It was a strategy that hiked deficits in the support of the long-neglected poor and workers and the establishment of the political support of the basis for critics and drained the country in an economic situation.
“Although the cool head that bought her time against Trump's threats is commendable, the sword of the Damocles is that Trumpism swings over our neck,” wrote the columnist Denise Dresser in the Mexico reform newspaper. “Behind (Sheinbaums) personal popularity and its party procurement there is inevitable realities,” continued chest of drawers, quoting the economic difficulties and deep divisions of the country through a judicial reform package supported by Sheinbaum, which sees critics as a radical step towards one -party agency.
In the eyes of many, Sheinbaum's bluish claims seem that Mexico will bypass a tariff, a tariff that she has received as a manager worldwide, which knows how to deal with Trump.
“The president says she is confident that there will be no more customs duties, but that is an act of faith,” Columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio wrote in El Financiero. “Trump is even for those who are closest to him.”
Skeptics noticed that Sheinbaum from the Trump administration did not win any guarantees, apart from the threat of 25% of import taxes for most goods delivered to the United States, the target of more than 80% of exports Mexicos. Trump also did not exclude Mexico from tariffs for steel and aluminum imports that were imposed on Wednesday.
These taxes seem to be a hole in the complicated architecture of the agreement about the United States-Mexico-Canada, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has ever been negotiated as “worst trade agreement” by the First Trump government.
In contrast to Canada, Mexico decided not to impose retaliation taxes in response to the metal tariffs, and I was preferred to wait until the next tariff period on April 2.
The rally in the city center of March 9 was originally intended as a forum to reveal slap-back tariffs against US imports, a muscle show by Mexico. Although Trump held the tariffs, Sheinbaum decided on the rally and called her a “party”.
“What did the president celebrate?” Asked Riva Palacio. “A new break that does not cancel the threat.”
Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico city, was the hand -picked successor to López Obrador, founder of the Morena party, who is now dominating Mexican politics. Both are lifelong activists on the left. And both once denounced the free trade as a racket to go to the rich.
A historical snapshot of Sheinbaum-Damals A young scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California shows her with other Mexican students who protest against the presence in Stanford by the former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The youthful Sheinbum, hair in a headband, defiantly swings a poster (in English): “Fair trade and democracy now !!”
But both López Obrador as well as Sheinbaum-The old school, setback poles and the steels, the US Technocrat has ultimately accepted the US Mexico trade in the United States. And both put the ideology aside and became pragmatic in their machinations to calm Trump, despite his long history of the humiliating Mexico and Mexican immigration.
But Sheinbaum is also not shy to return with the Trump administration. When Trump explained that the Gulf of Mexico was to be described as the Gulf of America, she proposed sarcastic that the United States was renamed “Mexican-America”, citing colonial cards with this title.
“That sounds nice, no?” She joked.
When asked about the latest comments by Ronald Johnson, a former military officer who was nominated as a US ambassador to Mexico, “everything on the table” when it comes to shortening drug cartels, Sheinbaum mocked.
She and other officials are deeply concerned about the prospect of one -sided US military strikes against Mexican drug cartels – an idea of accepting Trump for a long time.
Even more than tariffs, a US military attack on Mexican soil would probably test Sheinbaums cooling -aps.
“We do not agree,” said Sheinbaum when he was asked about Johnson's militaristic considerations. “He said everything was on the table. This is not on the table. Still on the chair. Still on the floor. Still somewhere. “
The special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.