Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met this week in Washington with US President Donald Trump in López Obrador’s first trip abroad since taking office in December 2018. The Inter-American Dialogue invited some key experts to comment on the significance of this trip, and Michael Shifter offered his comments for a number of publications reflecting on the relationship between the two leaders and the outcome of the meeting.
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En esta entrevista con NTN24, Michael Shifter habló con Gustau Alegret sobre la reciente reunión entre Donald Trump y Andrés Manuel López Obrador en la Casa Blanca, y sus implicaciones para los EEUU, México y Venezuela.
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CGTN’s Roee Ruttenberg spoke with Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, about US-Mexico trade relations after Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador visited the United States for a meeting with President Donald Trump.
Michael Shifter comentó sobre las diferencias y similitudes entre Donald Trump y Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador días antes de la visita oficial de AMLO a Estados Unidos.
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Program Director Lisa Viscidi sits down with Ben Cahill of CSIS to discuss recent developments in Mexico’s energy sector.
How are President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policies affecting Mexican companies and foreign investors’ appetite for putting money into the country’s businesses?
Until recently Mexico stood out within Latin America as a top potential producer of wind and solar energy, but policies under the López Obrador administration have made the climate for renewable energy investment increasingly hostile. Lisa Viscidi, director of the Energy Program, and Sarah Phillips, program assistant, sat down with Nathaniel Parish Flannery of Forbes to discuss what’s ahead for Mexico’s renewable resource sector.
What is the political outlook in Latin America? Will Brazil’s Congress continue to govern independent of the erratic, but somewhat business-friendly President Jair Bolsonaro? Will Mexico’s nationalist-leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (popularly known as AMLO) try to extend his power? Will Argentina’s new president Alberto Fernandez govern independently of his vice president Cristina Kirchner? Will Colombia become a new Chile in terms of riots? What will happen in Chile this year? And will Peru be able to return to political stability? Michael Shifter discussed in this interview with Latinvex.
Lisa Viscidi, director of the Energy Program, gave a presentation to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Mexican energy policy under AMLO and its implications for US-Mexico energy trade.
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Brazil has vast oil reserves, but can the Bolsonaro government get the energy to market? Lisa Viscidi tells Richard Miles of CSIS that reforms are already in place that will enable oil production “to take off.” The real obstacles are the financial stability of Petrobras, the shaky state oil conglomerate, and the monopoly that the state has on most aspects of energy production, delivery, and even retail sales.
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Michael Shifter habló con Gustau Alegret de NTN24 sobre el nuevo presidente de Panamá, el primero año de la administración de AMLO en México y la instabilidad política en Honduras.
Just as Pemex bonds suffered a downgrading to junk status by Fitch, Lisa Viscidi, director of the Energy Program, sat down with Nathaniel Parish Flannery of Forbes to discuss the state of Mexico’s energy sector, including oil and gas, regulators, and renewables, seven months into the AMLO administration.
Regulators and private companies will continue to play important roles in the development of Mexico’s energy resources despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s focus on strengthening state-owned companies and enhancing “energy sovereignty” by reducing dependence on energy imports from the United States. This was the key message from speakers at “La nueva política energética de México,” an Inter-American Dialogue event in Mexico City.
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AMLO’s skepticism of private investment, the cancellation of generation and transmission auctions, and the return to state-led electricity development through bolstering of the CFE threaten to squander Mexico’s renewable potential and drag its clean development efforts backwards.
Few neighbors have such deep and wide-ranging ties as the United States and Mexico. Both countries are bound not only by geography, but also through economic, security and social connections. Despite these strong connections—or perhaps because of them—the bilateral relationship is subject to strong pressures coming from domestic politics in both countries.
