The Security Cabinet takes the lead in negotiations with Washington to stop Trump's tariffs

Time is running out and the Mexican government is accelerating negotiations with the United States in an attempt to stop Donald Trump's threat to impose a general 25% tax on Mexican exports . Although the US president announced this Wednesday his decision in extremis to postpone the tariffs for another month, until April, the threat is still on the horizon. The talks led by Mexico have been a relay race, with permanent supervision by the Mexican foreign minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuente. Last week, the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, held a meeting with the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick . It is the turn of the members of the Security Cabinet, who will travel to Washington to meet on Thursday with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in order to defend the achievements of the Claudia Sheinbaum Administration's strategy to attack organized crime and stop irregular migration, two of the main demands of the US president at the time of launching his tariff threat, in January. On Wednesday, Sheinbaum left open the possibility of holding a new call with Trump and even seeking a face-to-face meeting if satisfactory agreements are not reached that do not violate the sovereignty of both countries.

The deadline for Trump to carry out his threat ends on March 4, according to his initial announcement, but the Mexican government has done everything possible “within the framework of its sovereignty” —in the words of President Sheinbaum— to address the Republican’s claims and move away from the imposition of the general tariff. Sheinbaum has detailed that the delegation traveling to Washington is made up of the Secretaries of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch —who is also head of the National Guard and head of the Security Cabinet— ; of Defense, Ricardo Trevilla, and of the Navy, Raymundo Morales, as well as the head of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), Alejandro Gertz. The delegation will also be accompanied by Foreign Minister De la Fuente.

For now, the Security Cabinet is bringing to the negotiating table the historic results of the fight against criminal groups and the trafficking of fentanyl , a drug that is among the greatest concerns in the United States due to the addiction pandemic among its citizens. Since October of last year, the month in which Sheinbaum took office, the Army, the Navy, the National Guard and the Prosecutor's Office have arrested more than 13,000 people for high-impact crimes, seized more than 6,500 firearms and confiscated 1.2 tons and 1.3 million fentanyl pills.

The Sheinbaum Administration has focused its security strategy on the State of Sinaloa, the main producer of the synthetic drug and which is caught in a spiral of violence due to the internal war between factions of the cartel founded by Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, currently in prison in the US. The siege around Los Chapitos , who head the Sinaloa Cartel, has resulted in the arrest of several leaders from the close circle of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, son of the historic capo and leader of the faction. These achievements of the Mexican Government, which is attacking the Sinaloa Cartel like never before, have been accompanied by the collaboration of Washington, according to the head of the Army, Trevilla, who stated that the recent flights of US drones detected over Mexican territory provided key information to hit the structure of El Chapo's organization .

There have also been positive results in terms of curbing migration, after the Sheinbaum government deployed 10,000 members of the National Guard on the border with the United States, as Secretary Rubio has acknowledged after a series of talks with the Mexican Foreign Ministry. Rubio himself has stated that the Trump administration is cooperating with Mexico to stop the trafficking of weapons produced in the United States that end up in the hands of drug cartels, perhaps the main claim of the Mexican government to Washington in the tug-of-war over the responsibility of the two countries regarding drug trafficking and addictions.

President Sheinbaum has maintained that Mexico's actions, while responding to the tariff threat, occur within the framework of cooperation with the United States, without submission and without allowing interference in its territory, in response to Trump's decision to classify Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations , which opens the door to incursions by Washington beyond its borders. As a warning, the president has sent to Congress a reform initiative aimed at foreigners and which reinforces the punishment for acts that violate national sovereignty.

Sheinbaum indicated on Wednesday that an official meeting is also scheduled between the Secretary of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. “This week the meetings intensified and we will always seek to reach an agreement within the framework of respect for our sovereignty and our Constitution,” the president said. Efforts to reach a balanced agreement through diplomatic channels that satisfies the two countries, extremely dependent commercial partners on each other, have reached a crucial phase. Mexico has bought time, for now.