Security in the Foreign policy of Peña Nieto; the uninvited guest

Abstract

This paper analyzes the foreign policy of President Enrique Peña Nieto in terms of security. It first reviews the foreign policy approaches of his administration and his attempt to “restore” Mexico’s leadership as an “emerging power,” as well as the emphasis on economic reforms and the intention to “de-nationalize” foreign policy. The article argues that there were three factors that ultimately caused the intention of de-securitizing foreign policy to fail and that, instead, led it to become an uninvited guest: the surge in the homicide rate from 2014, the crisis arising from the disappearance of students from the Ayotzinapa normal college, and the murder of a number of alleged criminals in Tlatlaya by the armed forces, as well as the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, which made security an important card to play in negotiating with that country. The text concludes that, even if the processes of securitization or desecuritization are rhetorical tropes used by state actors, in the end they must correspond with reality.