US ambassador to Mexico resigns amid strained relations

Veteran diplomat Roberta Jacobson announces she’s leaving ‘to pursue other opportunities’ after two years in the position

The US ambassador to Mexico is resigning from her post as the US-Mexico relationship sours and Donald Trump’s discourtesies toward Mexico make diplomacy increasingly difficult.

Veteran diplomat Roberta Jacobson told embassy staff in a note on Thursday that she was leaving at “a critical moment” in the US-Mexico relationship.

Jacobson’s resignation will take effect on 5 May, two years to the day after she was sworn in as ambassador.

“After 31 years in US Government service, I will be leaving in early May to pursue other opportunities. I do it knowing the US-Mexico relationship is strong and vital and that this amazing Mission Mexico team will continue to ensure it remains so,” she said.

“Mexico is in my heart and soul, and I will continue to do all I can to live up to my own words: somos más fuerte juntos! [We are stronger together]”

She did not say why she made the decision, but tweeted that was leaving “in search of other opportunities”.

Diplomatic ties between Washington and Mexico City have been strained since before Trump took office, and appear to be further deteriorating as the US president continues insisting Mexico pay for his proposed border wall – something the Mexican government has rejected out of hand.

“Even at a time of bilateral tension she tried to serve as a communications link. At the same time, she had to be some sort of buffer for President’s Trump criticism of Mexico,” said foreign affairs analyst Brenda Estefan.

Trump recently “lost his temper” in a telephone conversation with Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, according to the Washington Post, prompting the Mexican leader to cancel a planned trip to Washington for the second time.

Along with Canada, the two countries are currently in a seventh round of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Former Mexican diplomats expressed dismay with Jacobson’s departure and praised her professionalism when Trump’s intemperate language and tweets have tormented bilateral relations.

“She was always a partner in building a strategic, forward-looking relationship between Mexico and the US, and understood that the security, prosperity and wellbeing of our two peoples and nations were intricately bound,” said Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States.

“She will be sorely missed at a time when this relationship is being severely challenged.”

The Mexican foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, has dealt with the Trump administration by working closely with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and at times appearing to bypass the state department.

“A country’s bilateral relationship should be managed institutionally and I’m not sure we see that now,” said Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican ambassador to China.

“Even though there are many areas of cooperation between Mexico and the United States, at the end of the day the message that both administrations try to put forward is the fact that Videgaray is good friends with Kushner.”

Jacobson previously served as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.

After the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations in 2014, Jacobson led negotiations with Havana – making her the target of criticism from Cuban-American politicians and triggering a long delay in her Senate confirmation as ambassador to Mexico.

Since arriving in Mexico, Jacobson – the first female US ambassador in the country – has often spoken out on contentious issues such as human rights violations and the murders of journalists. Her participation in Pride celebrations has drawn scorn from Mexican conservatives.

Jacobson is the latest in a string senior diplomats to leave the state department after Donald Trump’s election: the US has lost more than half its career ambassadors and many other senior diplomats since Trump took office.

Last month, Tom Shannon, the state department’s most senior career diplomat – and another Americas expert – announced that he was stepping down. In January, the US ambassador to Panama resigned, saying he was no longer able to serve under Donald Trump.

Jacobson offered no news on her replacement.

José Díaz-Briseño, Washington correspondent for the newspaper Reforma, reported on Thursday that Trump would name the former General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre as ambassador to Mexico.

Whitacre was once a business partner of Carlos Slim when the Mexican telecom magnate won an auction privatising the Telmex telephone monopoly.