Earl Anthony Wayne Named New Ambassador To Mexico

By Alejandra Garza de Gutierrez

The United States has a new ambassador to Mexico; Tuesday, Earl Anthony Wayne was officially named Ambassador to Mexico in Washington D.C. by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The post had been vacant since the previous Ambassador, Carlos Pascual, resigned in March. Pascual could be considered a casualty of the WikiLeaks scandal; according to highly confidential diplomatic documents released by the website, Pascual was highly criticial of the Mexican government’s ongoing efforts to combat narcotrafficking. This led to a very public falling out with Mexican President Felipe Calderón — not helpful when you’re in the diplomacy business. It’s also probably not a good idea to publicly date the daughter of a powerful congressman who’s a member of the PRI ( Partido Revolucionario Institucional) political party and a leading critic of the President’s PAN ( Partido Acción Nacional) political party. Pascual did that, even taking the young lady, Gabriela Rojas Jiménez, to a White House state dinner for Mexican President Calderón. Ouch.

Pascual was named by President Barack Obama to replace outgoing U.S. ambassador Tony Garza who served as Ambassador under President George W. Bush. Ambassador Garza’s tenure was also marked by a scandalous affair. During his tenure in Mexico City, he found time to date and then marry Mexico’s wealthiest woman, María Asunción Aramburuzabala, heiress to the Grupo Modelo beer empire. The pair divorced in 2010 after five years of marriage.

Both previous Ambassadors were of Hispanic heritage: Garza is the son of Mexican immigrants and Pascual was born in Cuba and taken to the U.S. by his Cuban refugee parents. Both spoke Spanish, although with strong accents and not fluent by Mexico City standards.

As for Ambassador Wayne, one glaring fact stands out: a career diplomat, he comes to Mexico City after serving as the deputy ambassador in Afghanistan. Before that, he was U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. Among Mexico City’s notoriously cynical media, the joke is that he’s leaving one war zone to head to another. It’s a challenging time for the United States embassy in Mexico. In February, Jaime Zapata, a U.S. federal employee attached to the embassy was killed and a colleague wounded while driving an official vehicle near the city of San Luis Potosí. The murder was later attributed to members of the notorious Zetas drug cartel who had mistaken the vehicle for a rival gang.

There’s also the challenge of informing Americans about safety issues and travel advisories to Mexico in a fair and accurate manner. In a relationship where travel and tourism mean millions of dollars to Mexican businesses, Mexican officials have complained that the State Department is often too quick to issue travel warnings which have a devastating effect on the industry. Then add winning the trust of the Calderón administration in the wake of the Pascual  disaster, the continuing debate over the United States’ role in the Fast and Furious gun smuggling debacle, guaranteeing adequate funding for the Merida Initiative, overseeing trade issues in the age of NAFTA, responding to critics of Obama’s immigration policies, and many, many more issues. It appears Ambassador Wayne will have his hands full.

However, there is one area in which it appears Ambassador Wayne will not have any problems. Unlike his two previous predecessors, it appears that Ambassador Wayne is happily married.

Alejandra Garza de Gutierrez is an American journalist and political activist living in Mexico City, Mexico, with her husband and daughter.