Voices of Mexico no. 95

Our Voice

The administration of Enrique Peña Nieto has just celebrated its first 100 days, with a provocative balance sheet framed in what has been dubbed the Pact for Mexico, signed by the country’s three main political forces, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the National Action Party, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution. With the aim of analyzing, debating, and reaching consensuses to reformulate five key spheres of political endeavor (economic growth, employment, and productivity; security and justice; civil liberties and social rights; transparency, accountability, and the fight against corruption; and the strengthening of democratic governability), the mere idea of breaking the perverse 15-year cycle of divided governments has irrupted onto the national scene as an encouraging sign.

In accordance with this, in the sphere of foreign policy, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has issued the call for the 24th Meeting of Mexican Ambassadors and Consuls and the “Mexico: Globally Responsible Actor” Public Consultation to create synergies for a new era in Mexican diplomacy, centered on the values of peace, inclusion, prosperity, responsibility, and quality education. The country has an enormous need to roll back the negative image created by violence and organized crime, seeking new ways to articulate the imperatives of domestic development with those demanded of us to link up to the rest of the world. If we take into account that, today, Mexico has only 75 embassies and about 68 consulates —in contrast with Brazil, with 128 and 168, respectively— the era that our foreign policy is now entering will not only bring enormous challenges, but the need for more funding and highly trained human resources.