US President Donald Trump's new ambassador to Mexico, conservative lawyer Christopher Landau, arrived in the capital Friday, amid heightened tension between the two neighbors over migration, trade and Trump's frequent attacks.
Landau, a first-time diplomat, told reporters at the Mexico City airport he came "with an outstretched hand."
"I am here to listen and learn," he said, speaking fluent Spanish.
"The United States wins when Mexico is prosperous and stable, and Mexico wins when the United States is prosperous and stable. Obviously, there are challenges in the bilateral relationship, but those are to be expected in such a close relationship."
Landau, 55, has no diplomatic experience, but studied Latin America at Harvard and knows the region first-hand.
His father, George Landau, was a longtime US policymaker in Latin America who served as ambassador to Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela.
The new ambassador had been rumored for a job since the start of the Trump administration. A prominent Washington appeals lawyer, he previously served as a clerk to two conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices.
The US embassy in Mexico City, one of the largest in the world, had been without an ambassador since May, when career diplomat Roberta Jacobson resigned.
Jacobson, a Western hemisphere expert appointed to the post by former president Barack Obama, has since become a vocal critic of Trump's policies toward Mexico and Latin America.
US-Mexican ties have been strained by Trump's references to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists, his pledge to build a wall on the shared border and his threats to impose tariffs if Mexico does not do more to stop a northward surge of Central American migrants.
US President Donald Trump’s new ambassador to Mexico, conservative lawyer Christopher Landau, arrived in the capital Friday, amid heightened tension between the two neighbors over migration, trade and Trump’s frequent attacks.
Landau, a first-time diplomat, told reporters at the Mexico City airport he came “with an outstretched hand.”
“I am here to listen and learn,” he said, speaking fluent Spanish.
“The United States wins when Mexico is prosperous and stable, and Mexico wins when the United States is prosperous and stable. Obviously, there are challenges in the bilateral relationship, but those are to be expected in such a close relationship.”
Landau, 55, has no diplomatic experience, but studied Latin America at Harvard and knows the region first-hand.
His father, George Landau, was a longtime US policymaker in Latin America who served as ambassador to Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela.
The new ambassador had been rumored for a job since the start of the Trump administration. A prominent Washington appeals lawyer, he previously served as a clerk to two conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices.
The US embassy in Mexico City, one of the largest in the world, had been without an ambassador since May, when career diplomat Roberta Jacobson resigned.
Jacobson, a Western hemisphere expert appointed to the post by former president Barack Obama, has since become a vocal critic of Trump’s policies toward Mexico and Latin America.
US-Mexican ties have been strained by Trump’s references to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists, his pledge to build a wall on the shared border and his threats to impose tariffs if Mexico does not do more to stop a northward surge of Central American migrants.
