President Claudia Sheinbaum is detaining more migrants, seizing more fentanyl and positioning her country as a key ally against China. But the U.S. stance has shifted, too.
For the second time in less than decade, Mexico is preparing to negotiate with President-elect Donald J. Trump, who is threatening the neighboring country with sky-high tariffs, mass deportations and military strikes on cartels.
The stakes are huge for Mexico’s 130 million people. Among major economies, Mexico is exceptionally dependent on the United States, sending about 80 percent of its exports to the American market.
Mexico’s top negotiators are adopting an assertive stance to negotiating with Mr. Trump this time around. Some of them can draw from experience dealing with the first Trump administration: Mexico’s populist president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, forged a warm relationship with Mr. Trump, and Mexico avoided steep tariffs while acceding to demands to curb migration.
“We will find a solution because we have structural advantages,” Marcelo Ebrard, the economy minister, said this month, listing factors like greater economic interdependence between the two countries and declines in fentanyl deaths and migration.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has set the tone of this approach. While Mexico’s government has been unable to meet with the incoming Trump administration, she has blended conciliatory words for Mr. Trump with rhetorical pushback and vows that Mexico could hit back with retaliatory tariffs of its own.
“We coordinate, we collaborate, but we will never become subordinated,” Ms. Sheinbaum said in a speech this month.