Business has the key to Latin American integration

Companies do the region way better than Mexico’s diplomats.

Since she was a child, singing songs from across Latin America, Claudia Sheinbaum has always brandished the flag of regional unity. Today, as President of Mexico, Sheinbaum in theory continues to enthusiastically wave that flag. Her party, Morena, explicitly calls for greater integration with Latin America. Its more radical elements have run on a platform of “facing Washington” through a united region.

Yet for all this posturing, the Mexican government has little integration with Latin America to show. The private sector, on the other hand, has bound Mexico to the region in ways governments wished they could.

Not only have Mexico’s companies expanded southwards, the country has opened its doors to an outsized number of investments, companies, and talent from Latin America. And those numbers really are skewed in Mexico’s favour. In its most recent study, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) noted that Argentina—already Latin America’s biggest investor in the region—sent 97% of its investment to Mexico alone in 2023.

Why has the government gone wrong where business has succeeded so resoundingly? And why should Mexico even bother with Latin American integration?