Mexico and its contradictory, ambiguous and erratic foreign policy

By Lila Abed and Beatriz García Nice

From the beginning of his six-year term, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) made it clear that he would disengage from the international system, arguing that "the best foreign policy is domestic." He reiterated that the foreign policy principles outlined in section X of Article 89 of the Constitution would be unequivocally applied, including the self-determination of peoples, non-intervention and the peaceful settlement of international disputes, a series of principles encompassed in the Estrada Doctrine, the axis that has governed Mexican foreign policy for decades. 

However, in the last five years, the Mexican president has applied these principles in a discretionary and arbitrary manner, which has resulted in a contradictory, ambiguous and erratic foreign policy.