Velasco told the Senate that consular staff visit US detention centers 36 times a day and rejected any link between the USMCA and extraditions.

This article by Andrea Becerril and Georgina Saldierna originally appeared in the October 15, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

From the floor of the Senate, Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez stated that at moments of greatest complexity for diplomacy, when we are living through “times of pressure, noise and uncertainty,” Mexico relies on a foreign policy of State that starts from the conviction that sovereignty and the national interest “are not negotiated, are not limited and are not subordinated to anyone.”

Appearing before the upper chamber for the review of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s second State of the Nation Report, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) emphasized that if anything sums up the year he reported on yesterday, “it is that cooperation and sovereignty advance together: we cooperate more than ever and we always decide as Mexicans.”

For a country whose history is marked by foreign invasions and interventions, international law is our main weapon.

Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco

“Each of the 36 daily visits by our consular staff to a detention center in the United States, each agreement that opens a market for our producers, each principle we uphold in international forums pursue the same goal: to guarantee that the people of Mexico are always the ones who decide their destiny.”

He stressed that migrants are the priority, and in the face of “the regrettable cases of Mexicans injured or killed in custody or during operations in the United States, we have stepped up efforts to clarify the facts and demand [accountability] with the greatest rigor and responsibility.

“Each case has a first and last name, each family deserves an answer; this foreign ministry will seek them all, one by one,” he underlined. In addition to being in the detention centers every day, he explained, 16 diplomatic notes were sent to the State Department and 20 complaints to the prosecutors’ offices in charge of the investigations, and communication is maintained with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He emphasized that with the United States “we hold dialogue and cooperate in all fields, especially in security, always on the basis of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

He stated that monthly fentanyl seizures at the southern border of our northern neighbor decreased 67 percent between October 2024 and August 2026.

In addition, “Mexico has captured five members of the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted fugitives,” an “unprecedented result in the region, and has taken more than 35,000 firearms out of circulation, nearly 80 percent of them from the United States.”

To PAN Senator Marko Cortés, who argued that President Donald Trump halted the extension of the T-MEC [USMCA] because of Mexico’s refusal to extradite the governor of Sinaloa on leave, Rubén Rocha Moya, and other former officials of the state, he responded that “that has nothing to do with it.

“The T-MEC is a trilateral treaty, and I would ask what relationship Canada has with these extradition issues, which are bilateral in nature.” He added that negotiations between our country and Washington “continue through formal tables that are being held,” and are not mixed with political or security issues.

Earlier, he made clear that “international cooperation in security is an important tool and has only one point of entry: the one set by law, through the Foreign Ministry.”

Velasco also refuted the assertion by Cortés —and by other blanquiazul [PAN] senators— that “Mexico’s international prestige has collapsed.” On the contrary, he responded, “there is enormous respect for our diplomacy, for President Sheinbaum” and for the traditional foreign policy.

As an example, he detailed that today the country is expanding its preferential access to the world’s large markets, with the review of the T-MEC and with the Modernized Global Agreement with the European Union, already signed.

Morena senators Alejandro Murat and Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa demanded that the PAN member stop lying and disparaging a foreign policy that has delivered results. “Mexico has a fundamental leadership, as shown by Foreign Minister Velasco’s presence at the UN in defense of substantive equality,” said the former.

In his closing remarks, [Velasco] highlighted that beyond ideological differences, unity is required to protect Mexicans abroad, strengthen economic relations and consolidate an active and constructive presence in the world.

The post Non-Negotiable Sovereignty, the Basis of Foreign Policy, Foreign Minister Says appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.