Mexico’s New Envoy to U.S. Vows to Improve Relations

An economist who belongs to a prominent Mexican political family was sworn in as ambassador to the United States on Tuesday and vowed to improve prickly relations with the U.S. Congress.

Jesus Reyes Heroles, 45, a former energy minister, also declared that his government will spend more money to help Mexican migrants in the United States.

“The policy is to intensify the efforts to protect our countrymen,” he told reporters.

Reyes Heroles takes on Mexico’s most important ambassadorial post at a time when relations have sagged from their heights of a few years ago. Under former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico dramatically opened its economy and pursued a closer relationship with the powerful neighbor it had long mistrusted.

But during their nation’s 1994-96 economic crisis, Mexican authorities turned inward, analysts say. And while President Ernesto Zedillo enjoys a good relationship with President Clinton, Mexico has been assailed repeatedly in the U.S. Congress for its inability to curb drug trafficking.

The new ambassador’s challenge is “to try to again capture the moment we had during the discussions” on the North American Free Trade Agreement, said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a foreign relations expert at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.

But the debate preceding Reyes Heroles’ ratification indicated the difficulties of maintaining pro-U.S. policies. A senator for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party attacked Reyes Heroles for trying to sell part of the state-owned oil industry to foreign firms while energy minister. Many Mexicans have viewed the oil industry as a symbol of Mexican independence.

“The United States has always had its eyes on our oil, and today, with this sellout ambassador, we run the risk that they’re going to leave us with nothing,” declared the senator, Felix Salgado.

Robert Randolph in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.