Mexico's foreign policy for Latin America and the Caribbean is designed to encourage regional integration and strengthen its relations with key nations on our southern border: Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

During 2015, Mexico’s diplomacy has made clear the strategic priority of Latin America and the Caribbean for Mexico. This focus will continue and intensify in 2016, and the legal, economic and cooperative aspects of the relationship will be strengthened.

The Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) accounts for 37% of Latin American GDP and receives 43% of foreign direct investment to the region. It was strengthened through its cooperation on various projects with its 42 observer countries.

In July, the Mexican president attended the 10th Pacific Alliance Summit, where Peru took over the pro tempore presidency held by Mexico from June 2014 to July 2015.

In March, the Guatemalan president made an official visit to Mexico, which led to 12 agreements on taxes, agriculture, tourism and cross-border hydrocarbon fields. The Honduran president was witness of honor at the signing of the Third Additional Protocol to the Economic Complementation Agreement (ACE) on Trade and the Transport of Gas, 1999, which added El Salvador and Honduras to the agreement originally signed between Mexico and Guatemala.

In April, the President attended the seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama. Mexico participated in the efforts to reunite the leaders of the 35 countries of the hemisphere, including Cuba, for the first time in over 50 years.

The Riviera Maya in Quintana Roo hosted the tenth World Economic Forum on Latin America in May, where the participants discussed strategies for the region. The meeting was attended by representatives from 45 countries, including heads of state, ministers, mayors and more than 750 businessmen and opinion leaders. President Peña Nieto headed the High Level Meeting of the Alliance for the Prosperity in the North Triangle focused on energy issues. The presidents of Mexico and Haiti met at that time to review the main bilateral and regional issues and to sign an Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Mexico-Haiti Investments. The first international event to promote foreign investment in Cuba was also held at this meeting. 

State visits to Mexico by the presidents of Colombia and Brazil in May opened a new era of bilateral relations with these countries and gave impetus to bilateral cooperation in areas such as air transport, security, production chains, fishing, aquaculture, tourism, export promotion and cooperation in the academic-cultural, technical-scientific and environmental fields.

In August, the bilateral juridical framework was strengthened with the signing of agreements on security, defense, PKOs and scientific, educational and cultural cooperation with the President of Chile. In November, the President of Cuba made a State visit to Mexico, signing five new legal agreements in Merida, Yucatan. These agreements, in addition to the nine signed in 2013, are the result of the relaunched bilateral relationship with Cuba.

In 2015, Mexico attended the inauguration of the presidents of Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina. The Foreign Ministers of Belize, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru and Panama visited Mexico and binational meetings were held with Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Panama to discuss the economic, political and social aspects of the bilateral agenda.

In the multilateral arena, Mexico played an active role. It attended the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and China in Beijing and the third CELAC Summit in Belén, Costa Rica, where Mexico promoted the Special Declaration on the protection of children and adolescents against bullying.

At the EU-CELAC Summit, the agreement establishing the EU-LAC Foundation was signed, as was the 2015-2017 Action Plan for cooperation on science and technology, education and employment, climate change, gender, the global drug problem, citizen security and migration.

In March, Mexico attended the 49th Special Session of the OAS and, in December, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Establishment of the Mexico Fund for joint programs with the OAS.

In June, Mexico attended the 45th SICA meeting and the 15th Tuxtla mechanism Summit in Antigua, Guatemala.

Also in 2015, Mexico became president pro tempore of the Regional Conference on Migration (CRM), a forum in which Mexico promotes dialogue, coordination and joint action between the countries of origin, transit, destination and return of migrants. As president, Mexico has effectively and humanely promoted shared cooperation on migration.

In November, Mexico hosted the 20th meeting of deputy ministers with the theme "Integration, Return and Social and Productive Reintegration of Migrants," reaffirming Mexico’s interest in working with shared responsibility to encourage respect for the human rights of migrants at the regional level.

Mexico also participated in the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) by continuing its cooperation on issues such as trade facilitation and comprehensive disaster risk management offered in 2014. It was also more active in the East Caribbean countries, signing an agreement on technical and scientific cooperation with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in September for more educational cooperation, scientific research, tourism and support for SMEs.

An office was opened in Saint Lucia to promote the presence of the Caribbean in Mexico for the eleven non-resident ambassadors in Mexico. For the first time, they will have an office from which to address bilateral issues with Mexico.

Through the Infrastructure Fund for Central America and the Caribbean, Mexico has financed development projects in Haiti, St. Lucia, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This support amounts to approximately USD17 million.

In addition, two major works were constructed in Nicaragua with Mexican financing: the Dr. Alejandro Dávila Bolaños Military Hospital and the Nejapa-Puerto Sandino stretch of the highway.