US-Mexico Relations in a Double Election Year

The US-Mexico relationship has been fraught in recent years and presidential elections in both countries add tension, especially in the United States where both parties are using a crackdown on immigration from Mexico as a key selling point. Although the Mexican election seems to be a foregone conclusion, the government criticizes the US in public but has followed its strategic priorities in practice in an effort to go into the June 2 election with a stable relationship with its primary commercial partner and military superpower. What can we expect in the pre-electoral months? What are the post-electoral scenarios? And what impact does all this have on the daily lives of our populations?

Laura Carlsen, Director, Mira: Feminisms and Democracies. Laura has an interdisciplinary bachelors in Women’s Studies and a Master in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. A dual Mexican/US citizen, she works as an international relations analyst, journalist, researcher and consultant on movement building and gender justice in the Western Hemisphere. She writes for various publications in English and Spanish and hosts the weekly international relations program, “Hecho en América.” She currently works with Just Associates in addition to her longtime commitment to Mira, formerly the Americas Program.