As US Popularity in Mexico Hits All-Time Low, Pentagon Aims to Bolster Alliance Sputnik News
go to original September 18, 2017

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis listens the national anthem next to Mexico's Defense Minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos (L), and Secretary of the Navy Admiral, Vidal Francisco Soberon (R), during a welcome ceremony at Plaza de la Lealtad square in the Secretary of National Defense headquarters in Mexico City (Reuters/Edgard Garrido)

After the results of a new Pew Research poll showing Washington’s popularity with Mexicans to have hit an all-time low circulated among the media, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis met with his military counterparts in Mexico to shore up what is seen to be a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the two one-time close allies.

After eight years of increasing good will between Washington and Mexico City, diplomatic relations between the two countries has now declined significantly, according to a new US Pew Research poll, and the Pentagon has quickly moved to send its top officials to deploy reassurances to the Central American country's military brass that, contrary to appearances, all is well between the two countries.

On a Friday visit to Mexico, US defense Secretary Mattis discussed the relationship between the neighbors with words like "trust," "respect," and "support," even as a nonpartisan Pew Research Center study released on Thursday revealed that more Mexicans now view the US in an unfavorable light than at any other time since Pew began keeping track of the issue in 2002, cited by CNN.

But Mattis, and several other ranking US military officials meeting counterparts taking part in Mexico's Independence Day festivities on Friday expressed only positive relations between the two neighbors.

"In our military-to-military relationship, we maintain a very steady relationship — a growing relationship built on trust and respect," Mattis repeated on Friday.

In the Pew poll, however, Mexicans were revealed to have a deep distrust of US President Donald Trump, as well as in his unpopular border wall proposal. The poll also showed that few Mexican citizens agree that strong economic ties between Washington DC and Mexico City will help them. The results are strikingly different than a similar Pew poll conducted just two years previously.

Read the rest at Sputnik News

Related: Israel Aiding Mexico’s Development with More Arms, Drones and Spy Software (Mint Press News)

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