Particularities of the Mexico-United States Border and Its Impact on the Bilateral Relation

The Mexico-United States border has its own characteristics and particularities that affeet both the administration and the negotiation of the diverse issues of the border agenda, and contributes to define the composition of the bilateral relation. Inequalities between each side of the border, the asymmetry, followed with a larger and growing vinculation and integration on the border cities are some of these characteristics. Thus, the Mexican-United States bilateral relations are different from those of Latin-american countries, because they not only include national interest issues, but they must also include the border agenda. Moreover, the differences in political and judicial systems at each side of the border, the way in which they operate and the difficulties vinculated with the Mexican federal government need to identify, for each issue, its most appropriated counterpart or interlocutor, introduce additional elements of complication to a complex bilateral relation and constitute important challenges for the Mexican diplomatic practice.