Mexico and the Renewed Integrationist Spirit of Latin America and the Caribbean

Confrontation with several of its South American partners had resulted in the severing of dialog with certain countries on the sub-continent, while Mexico found itself excluded from a growing number of South American integration processes. To address this state of affairs, a central goal of the foreign policy of Felipe Calderón’s administration was Mexico’s reincorporation into regional and sub-regional integration mechanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean, where diplomats perceived a renewed integrationist spirit. Mexico was able to turn this to its advantage and play a decisive role in the creation of two in- novative cooperation and regional integration mechanisms: the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (celac) and the Pacific Alliance. Alejandro Ramos examines Mexico’s relations with Latin America over the last two decades as a prelude to his analysis of the factors leading up to the creation of celac and the Pacific Alliance. He then goes on to discuss the opportunities and challenges these mechanisms entail for Mexico and offers some ideas on how to best approach them.