Joel Martinez is the Mexico policy analyst for National Security and International Policy at American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, he worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Development Credit Authority office as a financial analyst. Martinez received his master’s degree from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, where he focused on international politics and economic development within Latin America. He previously interned with the Washington Office on Latin America and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Latin American and Latino studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
A left-wing populist running on a “Mexico First” message is ahead in the polls for the Mexican presidential election—complicating Mexico’s role in international climate cooperation.
Expanding cooperation and interconnectivity across the U.S.-Mexico border to increase renewable energy trade can help address pressing issues in the binational economic relationship.
The United States can help strengthen Mexico’s rule of law and reduce gun trafficking across its southern border; doing so would increase Mexico’s economic competitiveness and benefit U.S. interests.
No country affects the United States more on a daily basis than Mexico; to advance core U.S. national interests, the bilateral relationship must be guided not by nativism and nationalism but by cooperation.
The next administration should advance U.S. economic and security interests by embracing the Americas, not by attempting to wall the United States off from its most important partners and neighbors.