Containing and Engaging: Mexico’s Response to the Rise of Brazil

Abstract

Historically, relations between Mexico and Brazil have been characterized as distant, sometimes difficult, and occasionally good.¹ In the words of historian Guillermo Palacios, relations between the two countries have been a ‘chain of conflicts and reconciliation’.² As the 21st century began, Brazil and Mexico appeared as the two great powers in Latin America willing to become influential players in international politics, thus fostering a general perception of rivalry and competition in the media, academic articles, and official language, especially in Mexico.³ The governments of Fernando Enrique Cardoso and, more importantly, Luis Inàcio ‘Lula’ da Silva in Brazil, and Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón in Mexico, effectively implemented policies to increase the participation of their countries in international politics. As Peter Hakim clearly expressed it, in their own — contrasting — ways, Mexico and Brazil intended to ‘go global’; the former based on an open economy and free trade, the latter on a rather protectionist economy.⁴