A trio of stellar appearances under the Mexican sun
It seems that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro liked the political climate in Mexico so much during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador that he decided to make not one, but three courtesy visits. All this, of course, in the midst of an international panorama so tense that it made his passport more sought after by some agencies than by immigration stamps. While the United States pointed its finger at him and offered amounts of money that would make a lottery jackpot blush, Maduro found a comfortable and fraternal refuge in Mexico. What a coincidence, right?
The diplomatic tour (or how to be the most uncomfortable guest)
The first function of this tour was the most formal: on December 1, 2018, Maduro went to Mexico City for AMLO’s inauguration. A gesture of support between left-wing leaders, so moving that it almost makes one forget the small domestic problems. The second time, in September 2021, things got more interesting. The Venezuelan president appeared at the VI CELAC Summit. By then, the US State Department had already put a price on his head: 15 million dollars for information leading to his capture, accusing him of links to terrorism and drug trafficking. But oh, the details. Maduro landed, smiled and rubbed shoulders with other regional leaders. One can almost imagine the conversation: “The flight? Well, thanks. The multimillion-dollar reward for my arrest? Oh, that’s foreign policy minutiae.”
The third and final visit, in October 2023, was the most picturesque. Maduro traveled to Chiapas for a meeting on fraternal neighborhood and well-being, because nothing says “fraternity” like meeting to talk about the regional migration crisis. There, among representatives of Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, Panama and Costa Rica, the Venezuelan leader declared that this was “a correct first step to unify Latin America.” A correct step, no doubt, although some outside viewers might wonder if the unit is built by ignoring international arrest warrants. They are just details.
The great absentee and a movie epilogue
For the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum, the first president of Mexico, Maduro was conspicuous by his absence. What a disappointment. Of course, he was not rude: he sent a congratulatory message talking about the history of brotherhood between peoples and of carving out a world in this new era of multipolarity. Nice words that, in retrospect, sound like goodbye. Because the script took a dramatic turn: in the early hours of a random Saturday, the United States Government managed to capture him in Venezuela, formally accusing him of illicit activities such as narcoterrorism and corruption. So, while the messages of brotherhood still resonated, international justice knocked on their door with less diplomacy and more handcuffs. Ironic that his trips to Mexico now seem like a perfect prologue to this final chapter.
In short, this triptych of official visits paints a fascinating portrait of Mexican foreign policy and its controversial alliances. Three acts where geopolitics, irony and controversy danced an uncomfortable waltz, leaving analysts wondering what is really said in the hallways of those meetings for “fraternal neighborliness.”
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