High wire: The Sheinbaum administration and the future of US-Mexico relations

Since taking office in October 2024, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has governed as both the inheritor and interpreter of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s political legacy: implementing sweeping constitutional reforms while navigating a challenging bilateral relationship with the United States. How her administration manages shifting security dynamics and intense anti-crime pressure from the United States, including the threat of U.S. military strikes, domestic political fractures, and the impending review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, will have significant consequences for the future of Mexico and North America.

On May 26, the Brookings Foreign Policy Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors hosted a discussion on Mexico’s politics, security, and trade. The conversation was moderated by Mary Beth Sheridan, former Mexico bureau chief for The Washington Post, and featured Brookings experts Vanda Felbab-Brown and Christopher Sands, and Pamela Starr of the University of Southern California.