The other administration of the pandemic. The role of Mexican Diplomacy in the face of the global health crisis

The health crisis that surprised the world at the end of the previous decade, due to the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 virus, and that throughout 2020 kept both States and International Organizations and some of the pharmaceutical companies most important in the world, in a constant race against the disease, in order to manage the pandemic in the most appropriate way possible and thus allow the greatest number of lives saved; it has definitely deeply touched the Mexican public administration on most of its fronts.

Much has been analyzed and commented on the role of the Ministry of Health in Mexico during the course of the past year: its methods, its forms, the times... especially in the midst of the current political situation; the change of official party and power group in the federal administration, and the remaining months to the midterm elections that will significantly decide the political course of the country. However, it is not only the health sector that must manage the steps around the crisis, it is a joint work of several items, which involve, among others, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and definitely, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, under the direction of Marcelo Ebrard.

The optimal acquisition of medical supplies, the cooperation agreements to obtain them, and even the work around the protection of nationals who were trapped in other latitudes after the closure of borders; These are all aspects that have been the responsibility of Mexican diplomacy to resolve. Today, the distribution and obtaining of the precious vaccine against the coronavirus, in the midst of the global scarcity of the resource and in an unbalanced system in terms of obtaining them, requires the hard work of the foreign policy of any country. who does not want to be left out of the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

In the midst, as has already been said, of a particular political situation, in Mexico little attention has been paid to the achievements of the SRE regarding the management of the disease, either due to the little contact of the general public with the issues international or by the evident concentration in the steps of the health sector around this phenomenon; For this reason, this analysis will focus on compiling the most important actions of Mexican diplomacy regarding the international health crisis and in favor of its administration in national territory.

Despite the little emphasis that the current president of Mexico made on foreign policy issues during his campaign and the international scenario that would seem to lead to a stagnation in cooperation in terms of multilateral issues, the truth is that, in the first Two years into the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexican diplomacy has found a significant boost in the concert of nations.

Either because of the legitimacy that has been gained in the world system thanks to the democratic bonus, because of the leadership of a true expert on the subject, or because of the specific approaches of the National Development Plan in terms of foreign policy, which emphasize recovery of the constitutional principles on the matter, its strict monitoring and the intention to follow a guide for good diplomacy[1]; The truth is that recently, Mexico has excelled in various areas of global governance, such as the entry into the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the promotion of the Comprehensive Development Pact with Central America, the entry into force of the TMEC and its significant participation in the United Nations Security Council for the period 2021-2022. Its intervention in international efforts to adequately manage the most significant health crisis in recent times, propose a fair distribution of resources in this regard and obtain a good position for itself in the acquisition of supplies, has not gone unnoticed either. .

Regarding the administration of the coronavirus pandemic, both nationally and internationally, Mexico's participation has not only been active, but deeply significant and supported by most nations. Probably the most important action to highlight was the country's official proposal before the United Nations General Assembly on April 17, 2020, for the Organization and its member countries to promote an equitable distribution of health supplies and the then future production of the vaccine against the virus, due to the consideration of the imbalances in the purchasing power of the developing nations; this after the initiative was presented for the first time by the president of the Mexican Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in March of the same year, before the G20 summit.

"Mexico's representative to the UN assured that our country's approach has been very well received in the Organization and has even been co-sponsored, up to now, by 164 countries, including 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council."[\ 2] Well, the initiative reaffirms the role of the United Nations in coordinating the global response to the health crisis, in addition to highlighting the economic imbalances of the international system and highlighting the need of developing countries development of responding in defense of its population, despite the scarcity, is ultimately a call for global solidarity.

Regarding the actions that counteract the national crisis in the midst of this context, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its diplomats and under the direction of Secretary Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, have carried out another series of steps and precise procedures to guarantee access of the Mexican population to the unavoidable medical supplies to respond to the pandemic, in addition to ensuring the protection of nationals on foreign soil during the current situation.

The first notable aspect is the capacity that Mexican diplomacy has had to reach the necessary cooperation agreements that allowed the country access to essential supplies such as rescue and protection medical supplies throughout the beginning of the crisis, in addition to those that they were achieved with a focus on solidarity for regional support, such as those that can be found in the framework of CELAC.[3]

The same recognition deserves the work of the Mexican Consulates abroad, which have remained in charge of the repatriation of people or bodies that unfortunately were stranded abroad at the beginning of the global phenomenon, due to the closure of borders, as well as the tasks that have been carried out in the sense of protection of those who have decided to remain outside the country, mainly with regard to health care.

Although definitely, the most notable task of the SRE towards the interior of Mexico is to have achieved timely, universal and safe access to the different vaccines, which the world has, against the spread of the coronavirus; managing the necessary agreements for this, participating in the different clinical trials and obtaining the amount of doses required by a country of around 125 million inhabitants, in the midst of a global resource crisis, requires a high level of expertise in diplomatic negotiation. It must not be forgotten that Mexico was not only one of the first 10 countries in the world to have access to the vaccine, being also the first in Latin America, but also has negotiated agreements to ensure universal and free access to this vaccine for all its citizens.

It is therefore worth considering the efforts in this regard, made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the group of experts belonging to the Mexican Foreign Service, who, in addition to guaranteeing access to health for the Mexican population, were kind enough to worry about those less favored in the international system, thus gaining participation and leadership in front of those who need cooperation and solidarity, and presenting to the world an initiative that allows one of the most pressing global needs of the moment, cooperation in health issues and shared problems, to be brought to the fore. by all nations. Well, as Alejandro Chanona says, governance in health and the search for international solidarity that does not exclude anyone in this regard, is one of the great international challenges post COVID-19.[4]