The words of the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, during a turbulent week in relations with Washington, deepen the tension between the two countries. On Thursday, the ambassador warned the government of Claudia Sheinbaum that private investment from the north needs “certainty, security, and a corruption-free environment” to thrive in Mexico. “Investment is like water: it flows when the conditions are right and…
disappears when they are not. One thing is clear: investment follows certainty and moves away from corruption,” the diplomat said at the opening ceremony of a massive energy project in Sinaloa. The rebuke has not been well received at the National Palace, where President Claudia Sheinbaum responded with a half-smile that it is “what we are doing.” The clash comes in the same week as the confrontation over the presence of CIA agents in a local operation in Chihuahua and amid growing pressure for a review of the free trade agreement, the USMCA.
The ambassador’s speech in Sinaloa, celebrating the $3.3 billion investment in the Mexinol project—which will be the world’s largest low-emission methanol production plant—was full of criticism directed at the administration. “No company will commit resources where the rules are unclear, where there is no transparency, or where accountability is optional. If we want projects like this to succeed, if we want our shared future to be as promising as it can be, corruption and extortion must have no place,” he declared.
The diplomat spoke after Congress began debating a bill to postpone the judicial elections, currently scheduled for June of next year, until 2028. The judicial elections have opened a new front for the government with the private sector, which has questioned the capacity and efficiency of the new judges in commercial and business proceedings.
Johnson emphasized that corruption “raises costs, weakens competition, and erodes the trust upon which markets depend.” The Mexican Employers’ Confederation (COPARMEX) has warned that this crime has increased by 70% in the last decade and has brought thousands of business owners in Mexico to their knees. Ultimately, according to the ambassador, the cost of extortion and corruption is the loss of opportunities and growth for the Mexican economy. When asked about her stance on the ambassador’s position, Sheinbaum responded that the requests go both ways. “In the United States, it’s also important to have an environment for businesses and investment that is free of corruption, with legal certainty… and in Mexico as well,” she concluded, visibly uncomfortable, without wanting to elaborate further on the matter.
Source: elpais
