Cinco de Mayo celebrations: Checking in on US-Mexico relations

She said that actions like Abbott’s border inspections and López Obrador’s characteristic response to them in his morning press conferences — while in Puebla for the Cinco de Mayo parade, he called out Abbott’s politics with the visual aid of a music video by the popular group Los Tigres del Norte — only put trade relations more at risk.

“This only makes them more tense at a time of so much economic uncertainty and what we need most is stability,” said Siller.

Fernández, for his part, highlighted the economic side of U.S.-Mexico relations as a point of understanding and pointed to the USMCA free trade agreement as a stabilizing force between the countries. 

Where the relationship really needs work, however, is in matters of security, according to Fernández.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, agreed, saying that the Bicentennial Framework for security signed this year is inadequate to address the security situation shared by both countries.

For Vigil, the agreement leaves too much responsibility for security problems in the hands of each individual country. “Without a cooperative agreement — which to me, this is not — it’s going to be disastrous for Mexico and the United States,” he said.

“What it’s lacking is teeth and a framework that would lay strong foundations for a much more cohesive working relationship,” he said, adding that both countries still must work on their own respective responsibilities. 

The United States should focus more on reducing the demand for drugs at home through integrated drug education in schools, in churches and in the home, he said, and Mexico needs to do more to strengthen its justice system. But more collaborative enforcement efforts need to be implemented in order to reduce drug trafficking and the violence it causes.

“Drug traffickers can turn their strategy on a dime, and we need to be as proactive than the cartels, or even more so. There’s a lot of stuff that we can do together, but López Obrador has basically destroyed the bilateral working efforts in terms of counter-narcotics,” he said, pointing to the Mexican president’s restrictions on how the DEA and other U.S. agencies can work in Mexico after he exonerated former defense chief Salvador Cienfuegos in January.

López Obrador accused the DEA of “fabricating” the charges against Cienfuegos, who had been arrested in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges and returned to Mexico for possible prosecution.

“The Bicentennial Framework is not going to have any impact whatsoever. It’s like having a tiger with no claws or teeth addressing the drug problem,” Vigil said.

Despite all these tensions, much of the positive aspects of U.S.-Mexico relations can be found, interestingly enough, at the place where they are often most intensely focused in the public discourse: the border. 

Irasema Coronado, director of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, said that she finds diplomacy, partnership and understanding in the economic and familial ties that span the frontier. 

“Sometimes these transborder relationships can be affected by the broader U.S.-Mexico relationship, but at the local level, people by and large have better diplomatic and economic relations than the larger binational agenda,” she said. 

This may seem contrary to what people often hear about this region.

“The further you get from the border, the scarier it seems. If you’re in Ohio or somewhere else far away, the border seems scary from all the stuff you see on TV, and surely there are those aspects to it, but there are also binational, functioning economic and family relationships that flourish on the border,” she said.

"From a border scholar’s perspective, and comparatively across the world, this is a relatively peaceful, open border, with good relationships. We’re not fighting with each other, we’re not killing each other. Are there tensions? Absolutely, but they’re part of the relationship," said Coronado.

She and the others interviewed for this piece all agreed that meetings such as Thursday’s between the first ladies are a good thing for U.S.-Mexico relations. 

“Meetings like this can absolutely help. The more people meet, the more engagement there is and the better they know each other, the more opportunities there will be for mutual respect to emerge,” said Coronado. 

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