MEXICO CITY, Jan 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum
said Sunday she expected "good" relations marked by "dialogue" with US
President-elect Donald Trump when he returns to the White House in a week.

In a speech to mark her first 100 days in office, Mexico's first female
president stressed that her country, which is in Trump's sights over illegal
migration and drug trafficking, was "free, independent and sovereign."

"We coordinate, we collaborate, but we never subordinate ourselves" to other
powers, the 62-year-old leftist president told thousands of supporters at a
rally in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum's early days in office have been dominated by a war of words with
Trump.

On Sunday, however, she said she was "convinced" their relations would be
"good, respectful and that dialogue will prevail."

Sheinbaum's mix of firmness and diplomacy in the face of the Republican's
attacks have boosted her popularity.

An Enkoll opinion poll showed a staggering 80 percent of Mexicans approving
of her performance so far, higher than her popular predecessor and mentor,
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Trump unleashed deep concern in both Mexico and Canada in November when he
threatened to impose tariffs of 25 percent on all imports from both countries
over their alleged failure to halt the flow of migrants and drugs into the
United States.

Mexico's government said that some 400,000 jobs at US companies that
manufacture in Mexico could be lost if Trump enacted his threat, and warned
that the tariffs would also drive up US inflation.

On Sunday, Sheinbaum insisted that Mexican migrants north of the border
"contribute more to the economy of the United States" than to that of Mexico,
which last year received nearly $65 billion in remittances from US-based
Mexicans, according to official figures.

But the former Mexico City mayor has also made overtures to Trump.

During telephone talks, she assured him of Mexico's efforts to prevent
caravans of migrants from Central America reaching the United States across
the Mexican border.

Mexican authorities have also carried out record seizures of fentanyl -- the
powerful opioid linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United
States -- since the row began.

Trump has nonetheless continued to take aim at the United States' southern
neighbor, vowing to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

Sheinbaum responded in kind this week, with a sarcastic suggestion to revive
a 17th-century label for North America: "Mexican America."