This week in Mexico, bilateral trade talks with the United States continued to ramp up ahead of the formal review of the USMCA free trade pact. Mexico’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente sat down with U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson early in the week for their first formal meeting, signaling a reset in the bilateral relationship. De la Fuente and Johnson discussed migration, security cooperation, and trade, with the foreign minister making clear that Mexico would engage the United States as an equal partner on all fronts. That framing was quickly tested by developments on the border and in U.S. detention facilities.
On Tuesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum used her daily press conference to demand consular access to ICE detention centers after the 15th Mexican national died in U.S. immigration custody. Sheinbaum said Mexico has the right — and the obligation — to monitor the conditions in which its citizens are held, and that her government would pursue the matter through diplomatic channels. The same week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection construction on a border wall segment damaged Cuchumá Hill near Tecate, Baja California — a site considered sacred by the Kumeyaay people on both sides of the border. Indigenous leaders and Mexican officials protested the work, calling it a violation of Indigenous rights and binational cultural heritage.
Indigenous people in Mexico protest the U.S. blasting a sacred ceremonial site with dynamite to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Kumeyaay people consider Cerro Cuchumá a sacred site where they hold rituals and shamans hold initiations. It also functions as a cemetery. pic.twitter.com/Y2rIAixRsO
— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 16, 2026
Also on Tuesday, Mexico and the United States moved closer to a critical minerals agreement that both governments want folded into the USMCA framework, covering lithium, copper, and other resources central to the clean-energy supply chain. Shortly after, officials announced that U.S. Trade Representative would visit Mexico City early next week for a second round of talks ahead of the USMCA’s mandatory joint review, which officially launches July 1. Not all the trade news was forward-looking: A Canadian court reopened a US $270 million NAFTA-era arbitration case against Pemex, a legacy dispute that had appeared settled. Late in the week, more troubling news emerged for Pemex: A panel of government experts determined that the state-owned oil company was responsible for a February oil spill that affected 700 kilometers of Mexico’s Gulf Coast — and that groups within the company had deliberately covered it up.
Didn’t have time to catch this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.
