Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, is building a permanent political operation inside the United States, and Mexico’s consulates are part of it.
On this episode of The Hard Country, Joshua Treviño and Ariana Guajardo talk with Alejandrina Elms, Texas Public Policy Foundation’s new policy analyst on U.S.-Mexico relations. They discuss her new paper, “Mexico’s Regime in the United States.” It covers Morena’s 2024–2027 abroad strategy and how the party works with Mexico’s consulate network. It also explains why that breaks Mexico’s own rules on diplomatic neutrality and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The discussion also covers:
– The Morena party posters Josh photographed in Laredo, Texas, featuring then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)
– What consulates are supposed to do, and why Mexico’s network of 53 in the U.S. is so unusual
– The “Fourth Transformation” (4T) and why Morena counts Mexican-Americans as part of the Mexican nation
– The growing Mexican expat vote: about 184,000 ballots cast from abroad in 2024, up from about 98,000 in 2018 (figures cited in the episode)
– Morena chapters organizing protests in the U.S. and working with far-left groups
– The 2025 Los Angeles consulate controversy
– Policy recommendations: Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) enforcement, diplomatic reciprocity, and zero tolerance for interference
📄 Read the paper: https://www.texaspolicy.com/mexicos-regime-in-the-united-states/
📌 Follow Joshua Treviño’s writing at National Review, The Cannon Online, and TexasPolicy.com