Monday, June 28, 2010
Mexico's Envoy to the USA Excels in Bilateral Affairs
By George W. Grayson
Insiders at Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) compare choice ambassadorial appointments to cosmetic brands. The plum assignments—Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome—form part of the “Ruta Revlon.” Needless to say that Washington is both the most difficult post and also the most prestigious. Since 20007, Arturo Sarukhán has presided over the embassy at 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue—just a stone’s throw from the White House.
Despite an agenda that would test the patience of the biblical Job, Sarukhán wins high praise—from the Left, Right, and Center in Washington—for his performance as Mexico’s envoy.
Several factors account for his success, not the least of which is his impeccable English, which is all the more beguiling because he sounds more like an upper-class Londoner than an American.
Facility in language is only the beginning. Sarukhán knows the United States better than any recent Mexican envoy. He received a Masters’ degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s prestigious School of Advanced International Studies; he served as chief of staff to Mexico's ambassador to Washington in the early 1990s; and President Vicente Fox named him Consul General in New York in 2003.
He has developed or renewed contacts on Capitol Hill and the White House. This gives him entrée to policymakers at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Although he meets regularly with key senators and representatives, he also invites their staff members to monthly luncheons at the chancery—a practice questioned by other envoys. What Sarukhán realizes, however, is that lawmakers, who are too busy to do their own homework, rely on these bright anonymous men and women to render advice, write speeches, and prepare position papers.
Roderic Ai Camp, a professor and top mexicólogo at Claremont McKenna College in California, praises the 46-year-old diplomat for his “encyclopedic knowledge of both the United States and the bilateral agenda.” The academic super star also noted that, like Camp, Sarukhán boasts Armenian ancestors, which may have contributed to his “international savoir-faire.”
Sarukhán also boasts close ties to President Felipe Calderón. Indeed, he took a leave of absence from the SRE to work in the PAN [National Action Party] candidate’s war room. Among his achievements there was helping to craft the famous “chachalaca” political spot, which linked Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was then leading the race, to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez inasmuch as both men had taken cheap, demeaning shots at Fox. It’s no secret that some SRE veterans resent being bypassed as the ambassador goes directly to número uno.
Sidney Weintraub, a leading economic expert on Mexico, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and recipient of the Aztec Eagle Award, lauds Sarukhán for his “tireless work on and profound knowledge of” the Mérida Initiative through which the U.S. gave $1.4 billion to its southern neighbor in equipment and technical training.
Decision-makers in Los Pinos [the presidential compound in Mexico City] can decipher poll results as well as anyone. Bereft of attractive candidates, the PAN obviously faces an uphill struggle to retain the presidency in 2012. Just as Carlos Salinas wanted to integrate Mexico into the global economy via NAFTA before his successor might reverse the economic opening, Calderón is striving to so comingle U.S.-Mexican cooperation on the drug war so that the next chief executive will have no choice but to continue the momentum. In other words, he wants to make a security omelet that neither Enrique Peña Nieto [PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party] nor any other opposition figure can unscramble.
Sarukhán never dreamed that his journey on the Ruta Revlon would entail becoming an adroit security chef.
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George Grayson is the Class of 1938 Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary. This commentary, in Spanish, first appeared in the Mexico City weekly Milenio Semanal, on June 20, 2010. Dr. Grayson is also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The Foreign Policy Association (FPA) published his monograph, Mexico’s Struggle with Drugs and Thugs (2009). Transaction Publishers has recently brought out his Mexico: Narco Violence and a Failed State?
