Mexico’s Top Diplomats Fight Over Who Flinched to Trump’s Immigration Policies

Mexico’s top diplomats are openly fighting and calling each other liars over who flinched before their U.S. counterparts during the Trump era. The issue centers around “secret” meetings that led to the Remain in Mexico policy which effectively forced the country to stem the flow of migrants.

The diplomatic fight exploded this week when Mexico’s Foreign Relations Minister and Presidential hopeful Marcelo Ebrard said during a news conference that his former ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena (2018-2021), was out to tarnish his reputation. Ebrard charges that she was the one who accepted Remain in Mexico and a safe third country agreement that would invalidate most of the asylum claims at the time. Ebrard said that he was the one who fixed everything and stopped the third-country agreement.

“The ex-ambassador, since she left office, she has dedicated herself to slandering me everywhere she could,” Ebrard said. “It’s an obsessive grudge, I’d say. But let me go to his great objective, it’s not the truth, it’s to see how she hurts me every day.”

“Se ha dedicado desde que dejó su cargo a calumniar. Es un rencor obsesivo”, ni el #14DeFebrero detuvo al canciller Marcelo @m_ebrard para referirse así en contra de la ex embajadora de #México en #Washington, @Martha_Barcena: pic.twitter.com/kjjsOJMOO4

— Ciro Gómez Leyva (@CiroGomezL) February 15, 2023

The comments come after Barcena said that Ebrard had agreed to the Remain in Mexico policy but asked the U.S. to keep quiet as a way to avoid embarrassing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Barcena spoke about the issue during an interview with Univision where she claimed that Ebrard left her out of the loop on negotiations and strategy to control the situation. She described him as a “coyote in the henhouse.” Barcena also confirmed some of the accounts described by Mike Pompeo in his book Never Give an Inch, where he described some of the negotiations.

El programa “Quédate en México” no fue una decisión unilateral de Estados Unidos. Escucha cómo se hicieron las negociaciones, en este episodio del podcast #Univision Reporta https://t.co/yRMAAZjqo6 pic.twitter.com/EuljkRk3UH

— Univision Reporta (@unireporta) February 10, 2023

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also slammed Barcenas and Univision, calling the interview conjecture without basis.

Con descalificaciones a @LeonKrauze y a la exembajadora @Martha_Barcena, el presidente de México se refirió al episodio del podcast #UnivisionReporta, en el que la diplomática habló de las decisiones tomadas por Marcelo Ebrard.

Escucha la entrevista https://t.co/qUlhhlDZ2d pic.twitter.com/9UOe3r8R7L

— Univision Reporta (@unireporta) February 14, 2023

Soon after Ebrard called Barcena a liar, she fired back on social media, claiming that she was the one who stopped the U.S. imposition of a safe third country policy. Barcena said that Ebrard was only left with being able to lie to save face because she managed to stop the safe third-country negotiations with the delegation–favoring Remain in Mexico.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.