The information and the warning were transmitted in Washington to Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente directly by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio : the military escalation against Venezuela will intensify in the coming days, so it is better for Mexico to distance itself from the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Sources from the Mexican embassy in the US capital and the Undersecretary for North America of Foreign Affairs explained that the crisis with Venezuela was a crucial topic in the meeting held by De la Fuente and Rubio last Wednesday, October 15, at the State Department, five days after President Claudia Sheinbaum did not comment, for better or worse ("no comments," she said), on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, which was interpreted by the White House and local conservatism as a position of support for the Venezuelan regime.

That same Wednesday, October 15, Washington had reported that its president Donald Trump authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations against Venezuela that would open the door to ground attacks once its military deployment in Caribbean waters has been consolidated.

The following day, Thursday, October 16, the US frigates sank a suspected narco-submarine, an action that was added to the previous destruction of six other small boats with a death toll of 27 and that, when announcing it, Trump accompanied it with the aggressive declaration that he will destroy the Los Soles drug cartel, which according to him is headed by Maduro, who according to the US president has “offered” him everything (including oil) to avoid a war with the United States.

In that narrative line, the newspaper Miami Herald assured that Maduro's departure was already being negotiated with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, which she denied via her social networks.

Maduro certainly repeatedly mentions the unnecessary nature of a war, but he does not take care of a tone in English that does reveal a great ignorance of the language, but also his intention to mock.

At the De la Fuente-Rubio meeting, the first follow-up to the bilateral security agreements agreed upon during the first official visit to our country by the US Secretary of State on September 2, Mexico maintained its neutral position regarding the crisis in Venezuela.

In order to mobilize support for international law in defense of its sovereignty, our country has upheld as its constitutional principles of foreign policy non-intervention, peaceful settlement of disputes, self-determination of peoples, the prohibition of the use of force, the legal equality of States, and international cooperation for peace and development.

It claims such principles as a kind of shield because throughout our history, their violation has made us victims of foreign military interventions.

Add to these principles those of the Estrada Doctrine, which establishes that Mexico does not recognize or disavow governments (even those that come to power through non-constitutional means); it simply limits itself to maintaining or withdrawing its diplomatic agents.

That is where the reason for President Sheinbaum's"no comment" lies, amidst the many dangerous boasts of Trump and Maduro.

Snapshots:

1. A SUPERFICIAL RELAUNCH? It remains to be seen whether the PAN's announced renewal will honor or ignore the historical legacy of the party founded by Manuel Gómez Morín in 1939 with a rally held at the Mexico City Frontón, the same venue where the now-battered PAN announced its relaunch yesterday. They redesigned their emblem and adopted the motto:"Freedom, Homeland, and Family," which broadly suggests that they will maintain their character as a party founded as a Christian alternative and opposition to post-revolutionary power. They confirmed - as I mentioned in the previous post - the end of their alliance with the PRI, their rejection, at least in the short term, of forming a coalition with another political force, and their openness to appointing well-positioned candidates who do not necessarily have to be members of the PAN. The composition of the attendance at the event shows that one wing of the PAN remains dissatisfied with the current national leadership of Jorge Romero Herrera and its results, its prestige overshadowed by its alleged participation in the so-called real estate cartel.

2. NEITHER FOX NOR CALDERÓN. PAN members linked to national leader Jorge Romero Herrera were seen at the Frontón México: Xóchitl Gálvez, Santiago Creel, Ricardo Anaya, Maru Campos, Federico Döring, Marko Cortés and Germán Martínez, among others. And in line with the intention of opening up to the citizenship were former PRI and PRD members who now promote themselves as part of civil society. Such was the case of Enrique de la Madrid, Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, Claudio X. González, Fernando Belaunzarán, Enrique Krauze and Lorenzo Córdova, among others. The two presidents who came from the Blue and White ranks did not attend. Fox because he is recovering from surgery and because his current distancing from the Blue and White national leadership is no secret to anyone. Calderón because he definitively broke with National Action due to its poor electoral results. And for those who see good or bad omens even in politics, Calderón's former presidential spokesman, Maximiliano Cortázar, was the first to fall in the PAN relaunch, as he went to a pool of water placed as part of the scenery for the PAN event at the Frontón México.

3. PÁNUCO. Continuing her visits to the communities affected by torrential rains in Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Tamaulipas, President Sheinbaum was in Tampico yesterday, where an observation and monitoring center was established for the Pánuco River, whose flow has increased significantly due to the unusual rainfall. It was made clear that for now there is no imminent risk of flooding, but they are working strictly in accordance with civil protection protocols that would prevent another natural disaster.

4. RISK MANAGEMENT. Regarding natural disasters and improving the efficiency of public policies to prevent them and mitigate their consequences, we might well follow the example of the Guerrero government, whose officials have already brought to the country protocols in which they received training at the Japan International Center for Risk Management Education. This is a set of security and self-protection protocols and mechanisms to generate preventive content based on knowledge, experiences, technical and scientific studies that allow for strengthening important topics in risk management. On the other hand, on the subject of defending migrants, they took courses in Canada, in coordination with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, to learn about the hiring processes, mobility and working conditions that thousands of workers from Guerrero experience when moving to Canada and to have elements to build joint strategies that benefit those who leave their homes to join the Canadian labor sector.

raulrodriguezcortes.com.mx