Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, stood beneath an enormous Mexican flag and earlier than troops at a navy set up in Mexico Metropolis. It was Flag Day final month and she or he used her speech as a chance to, figuratively and actually, rally round it.
“Mexico have to be revered,” she said, including later: “Its persons are courageous. We all know that when our individuals unite round their historical past, their nation and their flag, there is no such thing as a pressure on the planet that may break their spirit.”
Occasions had modified, she mentioned: Mexico wouldn’t bow all the way down to international governments.
Given the circumstances — President Trump’s steep tariffs in opposition to Mexico went into impact within the first minutes of Tuesday — Ms. Sheinbaum’s optics have been becoming. As Mr. Trump as soon as once more focused Mexico, utilizing the hammer of tariffs as a negotiating software, a way of Mexican nationalism has been strengthened.
The Mexican authorities and companies have rekindled a “Made in Mexico” campaign. Some Mexicans have called for boycotts of U.S. corporations and merchandise, whereas others have put collectively lists of Mexican stores and brands to help as a substitute of American ones.
Ms. Sheinbaum is regularly featured on the entrance web page of native newspapers with members of the nation’s navy or in entrance of an enormous Mexican flag. Non-public corporations have taken out nationalistic ads, one that includes the president main the plenty and carrying a banner saying, “Mexico united, by no means defeated!”
And Ms. Sheinbaum, who has been attempting to steadiness a pro-Mexico drumbeat whereas advocating cooperative dialogue with American officers, has seen her approval rankings rise as excessive as 80 p.c, in response to one poll. She has not solely succeeded a well-liked president, Andres Manuel López Obrador, who reshaped Mexican politics and was her mentor, however has come into her personal at a time of worldwide upheaval below Mr. Trump.
“There’s numerous help for the president now,” mentioned Juan Manuel Sánchez, 57, an artisan in Mexico Metropolis who additionally praised Ms. Sheinbaum’s crackdown on drug trafficking.
Throughout his first time period, Mr. Trump used tariffs to renegotiate the North American Free Commerce Settlement and strike a brand new U.S.-Mexico-Canada settlement, which he signed in 2020. He has used comparable techniques now in opposition to Mexico and Canada, whereas arguing that too many unlawful medication and migrants are flowing from the 2 international locations into the US.
A month in the past, Mr. Trump signed an govt order calling for 25 p.c tariffs on Mexican imports. However lower than a day earlier than they have been to enter impact, Mr. Trump and Ms. Sheinbaum spoke on the telephone and introduced an agreement to delay them for 30 days.
Below the phrases of that deal, Mexico posted a further 10,000 Mexican Nationwide Guard troops on the border to assist stem the stream of fentanyl and migrants into the US. In return, Ms. Sheinbaum mentioned, the U.S. authorities would work to cease the stream of weapons into Mexico.
Regardless that the variety of migrant crossings on the southern border has dropped to once unthinkable levels since Mr. Trump took workplace in January, Mexican officers have been significantly deterring migration to the US months earlier than. Final week, Mexico despatched nearly 30 high cartel operatives wished by American authorities to the US, one of many largest such handovers within the historical past of the drug struggle.
“There’s numerous unity within the nation within the face of what’s taking place,” together with Mr. Trump’s financial threats, Ms. Sheinbaum mentioned on Monday, hours earlier than the tariffs took impact.
Though Mr. Trump insisted on Monday that the tariffs would start the subsequent day, the cloud over Mexico from the north has loomed since his most up-to-date presidential marketing campaign. It led to uncertainty and frustration but in addition boosted nationwide satisfaction.
Agustin Barrios Gómez, a former Mexican congressman and a founding member of the nonprofit Mexican Council on Overseas Relations, mentioned that even Mexicans who didn’t vote for Ms. Sheinbaum “perceive that proper now, Mexico’s nationwide curiosity — past celebration politics — is to rally round our president.”
One purpose for the surge in help for her, Mr. Barrios Gómez mentioned, was to make sure Ms. Sheinbaum has sufficient political capital inside the nation to be in a stronger negotiating place with Mr. Trump come what might.
Nationalism is difficult in Mexico, Mr. Barrios Gómez mentioned, as a result of it’s so intricately intertwined with the US geographically, culturally and economically, in addition to with immigration and safety.
“We aren’t neighbors, we’re roommates,” he mentioned. In different phrases, analysts mentioned, the U.S. tariffs in opposition to Mexico will harm each economies, as would the reciprocal tariffs instructed by Ms. Sheinbaum. (Mr. Trump can be threatening separate 25 p.c tariffs on international metal and aluminum imports, which might have an effect on Mexico.)
For Mexico, the tipping level in opposition to the US has not been reached, Mr. Barrios Gómez mentioned late final week earlier than the tariffs went into impact, however “should you name somebody your enemy sufficient, you may simply flip them into one.”
The specter of a commerce struggle between the international locations has modified the notion in Mexico of Mr. Trump and of its relationship with the US.
In response to the Mexican polling agency Buendía & Marquéz, the variety of respondents in Mexico who believed the connection between Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Trump was not less than good dropped considerably between final November and February, whereas the variety of respondents who’ve a unfavorable opinion of Mr. Trump jumped to 80 p.c in mid-February from 66 p.c in early January.
Mr. Trump has however praised Ms. Sheinbaum as a “marvelous woman” whereas mocking Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau, who has develop into more and more unpopular at residence, is getting into his final days in office whereas Ms. Sheinbaum’s standard basis is stronger. She resoundingly won election final summer season and commenced her six-year time period in October.
Throughout her Monday morning information convention, Ms. Sheinbaum as soon as once more known as for calm forward of Mr. Trump’s tariffs deadline and mentioned she hoped to strike a last-minute deal, which didn’t materialize. “Clearly we don’t need there to be tariffs,” she mentioned, including that her authorities would reply.
Since earlier than Mr. Trump’s inauguration, her administration has been selling what it calls “Plan Mexico,” a technique meant to diversify its financial system to make it much less depending on the US, to reinvigorate Mexican manufacturing and propel the nation to develop into one of many world’s high 10 economies. (It’s presently the fifteenth largest, according to the Worldwide Financial Fund.)
As a part of that effort, Ms. Sheinbaum’s administration began the “Made in Mexico” drive, through which an official seal is positioned on merchandise made within the nation that meet sure requirements. The seal, with an illustration of a Mexican eagle, was created in 1978 to advertise Mexican items and has been revived by presidents through the years.
Because the threatened U.S. tariffs have been paused a month in the past, Mexico’s secretary of financial system, Marcelo Ebrard, instructed corporations that the federal government wished to as soon as once more push the “Made in Mexico” seal.
Final week, Walmart Mexico, the most important non-public employer within the nation with 200,000 employees, unveiled its efforts to place the “Made in Mexico” seal — with the added phrase “proudly” — within the aisles of its 3,000 shops all through the nation. Though Walmart is an American model, Javier Treviño, Walmart Mexico’s senior vice chairman of company affairs, mentioned the corporate wished to point out prospects that it’s a Mexican entity and that many of the merchandise it sells are made inside the nation.
The marketing campaign “is essential for us as a result of now we have to strengthen funding and confidence in Mexico and be certain that the financial system can develop, as a result of the atmosphere is just not straightforward,” Mr. Treviño, a former Mexican congressman, mentioned in an interview.
Different large corporations have joined Ms. Sheinbaum’s push, together with Grupo Modelo, the brewing large that makes Corona and Modelo beers, which announced it will put new “Made in Mexico” caps on bottles.
On Saturday, Mr. Sánchez, the Mexico Metropolis artisan, was at his neighborhood market, which, he mentioned, proved that he prefers to buy regionally. Earlier than Mr. Trump’s tariffs went into impact, he mentioned he may contemplate boycotting U.S. corporations and merchandise in the event that they did.
In contrast to in Canada, the place locals have been shunning American merchandise and shopping for more Canadian flags since Mr. Trump threatened the tariffs, Mr. Sánchez mentioned that Mexicans have been already nationalistic and that almost all had a flag.
“However when one thing very critical occurs right here,” he mentioned, “all of us unite.”
Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.
