Esteban Moctezuma, at a press conference at the National Palace during his time as Secretary of Education. Presidency of Mexico / EFE
With the Trump era closed, Mexico has also decided to change its man in Washington.
Joe Biden's first moves in the bilateral relationship have been kind to Mexico, in tune with Morena's theoretical progressive agenda: the end of the red alert at the border, the paralysis of the wall and, in general, a thorough review of the immigration policy.
Although at the same time there are also underlying tensions, starting with the controversial delay in recognizing the official triumph of Biden, serious divergences in energy policy or the diplomatic conflict opened by the Cienfuegos case.
To reduce these tensions, López Obrador has chosen Esteban Moctezuma, a politician with a long history in the PRI and repeated by Morena two years ago from the business world.
His lack of diplomatic experience has drawn criticism, but both diplomatic sources and the environment of the new ambassador highlight that precisely his low profile, as a discreet negotiator reluctant to hand-to-hand, can help cushion US pressure on the front line.
After being part of the electoral shipwreck of the PRI in 2000, Moctezuma has spent almost two decades apart from politics.
Until, in 2018, López Obrador went to look for him at the Azteca Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Ricardo Salinas Pliego, one of the most powerful, controversial and also recently closest businessmen to the president.
During the negotiations with the then director of the private foundation, his first request was for the Social Development portfolio, a position he had already held in the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo.
The president's plans consisted, however, in handing over to him the reins of Education, a hot spot where, among other things, they had to reverse the thorny reform implemented by Enrique Peña Nieto, which the teachers were protesting.
His two years at the head of the secretariat were not peaceful.
Moctezuma had to face strong budget cuts, assuming an imposed management team and with his main interlocutor, the powerful National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), negotiating directly with the president.
Interference has been a constant throughout his career.
After successfully directing the electoral campaign of Zedillo, in 1994 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior.
His first and almost last task was the negotiation with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), recently raised in the jungle of Chiapas.
In parallel, the prosecutor's office was building a case against its leaders, with the consent of the president, but behind the back of the Interior.
Moctezuma was barely seven months in office.
Another five as a senator.
And one year at the helm of Social Development.
His career, points out a source from his environment, could be considered "a long career of small failures."
A tour through the corridors of Mexican power but without finishing firmly settling down.
"He is a very moderate politician, who projects an image of a sensible person, something very important for the position he is going to occupy," says Raúl Benítez Manaut, professor at UNAM's Center for Research on North America.
"He is not a radical militant of Morena, which would have been a mistake, but he comes from the technocratic class of Zedillo, who inaugurated the first Free Trade Agreement and knows the relationship with the United States well."
Regarding his lack of diplomatic experience, the academic does not consider that it will be a drag: “The Washington embassy probably has the best career diplomats, who know perfectly well the
lobbies
, the congressmen and the entire system.
Furthermore, he will not be the first ambassador without experience "
New stage
Moctezuma will open a new stage in the relationship, after Trump's tumultuous years, with the White House.
Biden has vowed to restore Obama's spirit of diplomacy.
A commitment, yet to be concretized, for international cooperation to combat poverty, violence and corruption.
Obrador's response has been favorable: "With you in the presidency it will be possible to continue applying the basic principles of foreign policy of our Constitution, especially that of non-intervention and self-determination of the peoples," he wrote in the official congratulatory message.
The Mexican president, in any case, has also shown signs of greater rigidity compared to his relationship with Trump.
Despite the initial harsh attacks and lost impulses, López Obrador has worked since the arrival of the Republican tycoon to the White House to wrap his diplomatic position in a climate of harmony and distance from hostilities.
Faced with a greater ideological convergence on paper and without the constant threat of reprisals, López Obrador could now, paradoxically, not continue on the pragmatic path and return to principled politics.
Migration and security are the historical issues on the agenda where greater tension can be staged in the event of a Mexican turnaround.
On the other hand, the economic derivative is one of the biggest arguments to continue with open arms diplomacy towards the United States.
More than three quarters of Mexican exports depend on the border —which in turn account for 35% of the country's GDP— and more than half of tourism, which represents almost 10%.
If we add another 3% of the automotive sector - fueled in turn by US demand, the result is that almost half of the levers of Mexican GDP depend on the neighbor to the north.
Although edges also appear in this area in the new relationship between the two neighbors.
Biden, despite not fully embracing the so-called
Green New Deal
agenda
,
flag of the most progressive sector of the Democratic side, it has been in favor of encouraging the renewable energy industry.
The new president has promised an investment of two trillion dollars during the four years in office.
In Mexico, for its part, renewable energies are in decline, given the clear political line of rescuing at all costs the splendor of Pemex and CFE, the two old Mexican public energy companies.
López Obrador's orthodox energy policies have already sparked diplomatic friction.
The prelude to the new electricity law proposed by Morena aroused the ire of US congressmen, who raised their voices in October to denounce an alleged preferential regulatory treatment for parastatals to the point of postponing or even completely canceling permits for US energy companies.
The
energy
lobby
will be one of the first bones for the new ambassador, who will probably have no choice but to compromise pending the outcome of the June midterm elections in Mexico.
Crucial moment to measure the forces of the Morena Government facing the end of the six-year term.
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