Concerns about security on the southern border of the United States with Mexico have been a constant since the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two nations, which this December reach the significant number of 200 years.
Although before there were problems of criminality with the Comanches who went from one place to another to leave their crimes unpunished, the mirrors of that reality could be traced to the present with marked differences, according to experts invited by the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC to review the current situation.
And not to mention the migrations, nothing new, because during slavery in the United States and while the northern power was going through the period of the Civil War (1861-1865) under Abraham Lincoln’s presidency commanding the unionist force from the north against the confederate rebellion from the south, he increased the number of slaves who fled from forced labor plantations to enter Mexican territory in search of freedom.
The economist Luis Téllez, former Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and Secretary of Communications and Transportation during the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) said that the majority of ambassadors sent by the White House to Ciudad Mexico, despite the circumstances, “have had a fairly successful level of work.”
But the context of “border security and migration” has marked an increasingly “complex” turning point for diplomats who have had to deal with the problem in recent years facing “enormous complexities” in the border area.
The 200 years of dealing with disparate issues have not been easy for the diplomatic relationship, such as the wobbles during the end of the Cold War, as the conflict between the blocs led by the United States and the former Soviet Union was called, when the Mexican Republic , understood low-intensity conflicts in Central America in a different way.
Former Ambassador John Feeley, who headed the diplomatic mission commissioned by President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2012 in Mexico, explained that among all his experience, he could highlight that among the great challenges between the two countries with issues such as security, migration, investments, among others , a common point has been foster “trust” on both sides.
And that despite disagreements on specific points, cooperation on key issues has been maintained, which has made it possible to maintain cooperation on tricky issues such as security and migration as normal.
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