The upcoming 2024 presidential elections in Mexico and the United States have the potential to reshape the bilateral relationship. Key issues such as trade, security cooperation, and immigration policies between the bordering countries could be reshaped by its outcome. The Georgetown Americas Institute is pleased to host Arturo Sarukhan, former ambassador of Mexico to the United States, for a conversation on the implications of these elections. The conversation will be moderated by author and journalist Michael Reid, and welcome remarks will be given by GAI Founding Director Alejandro Werner.
This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown Americas Institute and the Latin America Policy Association of the McCourt School of Public Policy.
Featuring
Arturo Sarukhan is a highly respected Mexican diplomat with a distinguished career in international relations. Over the past three decades he has held key positions in the Mexican government, serving as ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2013—a period marked by significant developments in U.S.-Mexico relations, including efforts to enhance security cooperation and promote economic ties between the two countries. Prior to his appointment he was director for North American Affairs and chief of Policy Planning in the Foreign Ministry. He also served as Mexico's consul general in New York City. Ambassador Sarukhan holds a degree in international relations from the Universidad Iberoamericana and a master's degree in U.S. foreign policy from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Michael Reid is an author, journalist, and speaker, specializing in Latin American, Iberian, and international affairs. In 2023 he was appointed as a visiting professor in practice at the School of Public Policy in the London School of Economics. From 1994 until 2023 he was a staff journalist for the Economist. From 2014 to 2022 he wrote the “Bello” column on Latin America and was a senior editor and Spain correspondent; prior to that he was the magazine’s Americas editor, its correspondent in Brazil, consumer industries correspondent, and correspondent in Mexico and Central America. He spent most of the 1980s based in Lima covering the Andean region for the Guardian and the BBC. He recently published the book Spain: The Trials and Triumphs of a Modern European Country (Yale University Press, 2023). His previous books include Forgotten Continent: A History of the New Latin America (Second edition, 2017) and Brazil: The Troubled Rise of a Global Power (2014), both published by Yale University Press.
Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).