The Mexican Ambassador to the United States announces that she will retire "in the coming months"

Ambassador Martha Bárcenas, in a photo on her social networks.

Martha Bárcenas, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, will retire in the coming months.

The diplomat has surprisingly announced her retirement from public service in a videoconference in which she spoke of the bilateral relationship, which is experiencing moments of tension after the arrest of General Salvador Cienfuegos and the triumph of Joe Biden.

“I have fulfilled my time in the United States serving my president and my country, above all, faithfully and loyally.

It is time for another stage in my life, ”said Bárcenas, 63, in response to a question posed by an anonymous participant in a forum organized by the Baker Institute of Rice University in Houston (Texas).

The Mexican ambassador has not set a date to leave a vital legation for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Foreign Ministry sources affirm that she will work during the first months of the Democratic Administration that arrives at the White House on January 20, 2021.

Bárcenas said in the talk that he recommended that the Mexican president congratulate Joe Biden on Monday for his victory.

The voters of the Electoral College of the United States are meeting in the capitals of the States to endorse the results that the ballot box threw in the November 3 elections.

The confirmation of the body will allow the Mexican government to evaporate the confused position it adopted after the defeat of Donald Trump, who has become an ally of the Morena Administration.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador had asked to wait for the legal challenges to be cleared to congratulate Biden.

Bárcenas also fueled the controversy by calling the Democrat "presumed president-elect."

"I have always said throughout the campaign and until now that people should not fear for the strength and integrity of the institutions of the United States," added the diplomat, who said that she will take time to "write her memoirs."

Bárcenas arrived at the Mexican embassy in Washington in December 2018, when she was appointed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the start of his government and later ratified by the Senate.

She became the first woman to hold the position thanks to a career that had led her to be an ambassador to Turkey, Denmark, as well as being a delegate to the UN, UNESCO and the OAS (Organization of American States).

Despite her seniority in the foreign service, the diplomat found a relationship in her position that was constantly tested.

The Donald Trump Administration saw in the change of Mexican government the opportunity to dictate new terms in the mutual relationship.

He did it on issues such as migration, trade and security.

The Mexican authorities learned in 24 months to navigate in the middle of a continuous storm.

The relationship between López Obrador and Trump consolidated over time.

It had a high point in July, when the Mexican president visited the White House to celebrate the entry into force of the new trade agreement for North America, the T-MEC.

Bárcenas served as host for the robust Mexican delegation made up of high-profile businessmen who traveled with the president with the intention of reviving the economy.

The visit was a success for the Mexican side and managed to appease the versions that point out the bad relations that Ambassador Bárcenas maintains with Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

The honeymoon turned sour in October, when US authorities arrested General Cienfuegos, former Secretary of Defense with Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) in Los Angeles.

The arrest, made by the DEA and without the knowledge of Mexican authorities, caused a great nuisance in the National Palace.

Mexico managed with great pressure to get the Department of Justice to drop the charges, which caused the military man, accused of drug trafficking, to return to the country as a free man.

Since then, both countries have worked to reestablish a relationship that has been affected and that has seen trust undermined.

The change of interlocutors is one of the tools in this rehabilitation.