The visitor who comes in uniform

By Stephanie Henaro

This Friday Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Security of Donald Trump's second administration, lands in Mexico. She is not coming to sightsee or to try suadero tacos. She comes with a clear agenda, boots on her feet and a message wrapped in diplomatic courtesy, but with warnings between the lines. He is the new face of "America first"... and "Mexico, let him deliver".

To some, Noem is just another civil servant. For others, she is the ideological extension of hard-core Trumpism, disguised as pragmatism. She comes after visiting El Salvador and Colombia, like someone going around the neighborhood to see if the fences are still where they should be. The official theme is shared security, but in reality, the subtext is the same as always: migration, fentanyl and control.

Because in Washington's narrative, the south is always responsible for what happens in the north. Mexico is a kind of extended customs, an extended waiting room to detain migrants and filter threats. And if it doesn't, we already know what's coming: tariffs, pressure or phrases like "we're going to make them pay for the wall," version 2025.

Kristi Noem arrives with the courtesy of the position and the firmness of knowing she is backed by a narrative that sells in the United States: "Mexico does not control its border", "the cartels are a direct threat", "something must be done". And that "something" often means doing it over the other.

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