The junior Mexican diplomat, part of an official delegation to Washington, was caught in an undiplomatic moment: munching on peanuts piled on a napkin as he sat with political heavyweights including Mexican Cabinet secretaries and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The 2019 image of the peanut-chomping envoy quickly went viral, becoming a biting social-media hashtag: #LordCacahuates (Lord Peanuts).
It was the kind of protocol-busting moment that could derail a career. One wag wrote on X that the young diplomat had “behaved like a drunk in a dive bar under the stunned gaze of Nancy Pelosi.”
But Roberto Velasco Álvarez survived Peanutgate — with a flourish.
Last week, the Mexican Senate confirmed President Claudia Sheinbaum’s nomination of Velasco as the new secretary of foreign relations, Mexico’s equivalent of secretary of State.
Velasco, who is 38 but looks even younger, replaced Juan Ramón de la Fuente, 74, a veteran diplomat and academic who stepped down, he said, for health reasons.
This was a cultural, as well as generational, changing of the guard. Velasco, a millennial who came of age in the digital era, is among the youngest officials to head the secretariat. He is also the country’s first openly gay top diplomat.
Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection Omar Garcia Harfuch gestures during the daily press conference of Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, where she announced progress in the organization of the upcoming FIFA 2026 World Cup, at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on November 3, 2025. (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA / AFP) (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)
World & Nation
Velasco is a bespectacled political wonk known for discipline, discretion and a pragmatic bent, along with an unquestioned fealty to the ruling leftist Morena political bloc, according to reports in Mexico. Those traits, along with his standing as a protege of Marcelo Ebrard — Mexico’s secretary of the economy, who previously served as foreign minister — helped power Velasco’s meteoric career rise.
But observers say Velasco managed to vault over the traditional diplomatic career path thanks largely to something else: His deep knowledge of Mexico’s most crucial foreign policy concern — the United States. These days, it’s an essential specialty for a Mexican diplomat.
Under Sheinbaum, columnist León Krauze wrote in El Universal newspaper, the Mexican foreign ministry “has had one primordial objective: to appease Donald Trump.”
Along with a law degree from Mexico’s Iberoamerican University, Velasco holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago. According to his official biography, he even served as an intern in the Chicago mayor’s office, certainly a deep dive into a singular iteration of U.S. politics.
Before his promotion, Velasco oversaw relations with the United States and Canada as the ministry’s chief for North America. He has engaged in countless bilateral forums, work groups and discussions about immigration, drug trafficking, cross-border commerce and other concerns, and generally received good marks from U.S. officials.
On Thursday, Velasco received a congratulatory call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio, according to the State Department, “addressed efforts to deter mass illegal immigration, secure our borders and promote regional stability.”
Upon Velasco’s appointment, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson wrote on X that he wished him “every success” as the U.S. and Mexican governments work to “advance the historic cooperation led by” Presidents Trump and Sheinbaum.
That’s a generous reading of the bilateral zeitgeist at a tempestuous moment.
Velasco faces no shortage of challenges. Mexico has struggled to keep peace with Trump’s shifting and often incendiary demands on security, trade and immigration, among other issues. The tariff threats that the White House has wielded globally hit particularly hard in Mexico, with its dependence on northbound commerce.
The new secretary takes up his post at a time when traditional diplomacy often takes a back seat to Trump’s off-the-cuff comments and social media outbursts.
Source: latimes
