Many world leaders have congratulated President elect Biden, and one very important one has not
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador remains silent. Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University's Baker Institute says "every press conference, every morning he seems to actually resent that Mr. Trump lost the election. I don't think he has wanted to acknowledge the outcome in any way.
Payan says AMLO has a kinship with President Trump. I think in Lopez Obrador found in Mr. Trump's style of doing politics and his approach to pubic policy found a friend, a legitimizing echo.
I think he's truly in mourning and he's sad to see him go. His defeat is going to have a ripple effect on the politics of Mexico which had been kind of a mirror of American politics."
Payan believes López Obrador does not like Mr. Biden. "I am becoming convinced that he knows Mr. Biden understands American interests and is going to pursue them quite systematically in terms of security, immigration and trade. I think the vision López Obrador has of a more nationalistic Mexico, a more closed economy is not going to go well with Mexico's commitments on the international stage and the United States. It's not going to be a good relationship."
Mexico recently traded places with China as the number one trading partner with the United States, and it has an especially important relationship with Texas. Two thirds of all binational trade originate in Texas, end in Texas or come through Texas.
