The Conspirators’ Summit

This article first appeared in the July 15, 2025 edition of Sin Embargo.

The American Society of Mexico organized a gala dinner in honor of Ambassador Ronald Johnson. It was attended by PAN members Jorge Romero, Ricardo Anaya, Kenia López Rabadan, as well as other opposition members such as Lorenzo Córdova and José Ángel Gurría, as well as Morena members such as Sergio Meyer, Emmanuel Reyes Carmona, and former Morena leader and current PT Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky.

Mexico City. A dinner in honor of the United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, organized by the American Society of Mexico and sponsored by magnate Ricardo Salinas Pliego, among others, brought together figures from Mexico’s right wing and even Morena supporters, who listened to Ronald Johnson’s demands to President Claudia Sheinbaum to more forcefully combat drug trafficking, hours after Donald Trump announced 30 percent tariffs on Mexican products shipped to his country.

“It’s not a threat, it’s a strategic warning. The 30 percent tariff that could be applied starting August 1 is a direct consequence of the lack of effective action on issues that impact not only trade, but also the health and national security of the United States and Mexico,” argued, for example, Mexican-American Larry Rubin, president of the American Society of Mexico.

And before the guest of honor, Ambassador Johnson, Larry Rubin added: “The fight against fentanyl, organized crime, now called terrorist groups, and respect for the commitments signed in the USMCA can no longer wait.”

Larry Rubin hosted the dinner for Ambassador Ronald Johnson, who since his ratification by the U.S. Senate has been celebrated by the Mexican right, as was the case in May when Guadalupan Trump supporter Eduardo Verástegui also hosted a dinner in his honor.

The American Society of Mexico event was attended by PAN members Jorge Romero, Ricardo Anaya, and Kenia López Rabadán, as well as other opposition figures such as Lorenzo Córdova and José Ángel Gurría, as well as Morena members such as Sergio Meyer, Emmanuel Reyes Carmona, and Yeidckol Polevnsky, the former leader of that party and current Senator for the Workers’ Party (PT). Morena Environment Secretary Alicia Bárcena was also present.

Tickets to the gala cost $200 USD, [about 1/3 the monthly wage of a Mexican worker] according to journalist Salvador Camarena in his column in the newspaper El País. The venue was the Hotel Camino Real in Polanco, where attendance required, in addition to paying the ticket price, formal attire, “and there was no room to dispute the table assigned,” Camarena explained.

Colonel Ronald D. Johnson, a Green Beret who served in various armed conflicts around the world and worked with the CIA in espionage for 20 years, spoke at the time about how the United States’ purpose is to “return to the path of freedom with rights, justice, and economic opportunity,” which he explained “will not be easy, nor will it happen immediately.” He also spoke about how the new era under Trump is “driven by a very clear purpose: a shared responsibility and a commitment to a stronger, more secure, and prosperous future for the United States, but also for our partners and allies.”

In his message, as reported by the media, he did not elaborate or emphasize the letter that Donald Trump sent to President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo hours earlier.

Larry Rubin, whose views seemed to be those of a representative of the US government, was threatening towards the Mexican government. He said that if Mexico strayed from the alliance with the US, “it would not only be a political risk of immeasurable magnitude, but a strategic error that would jeopardize our common future.”

Rubin also stated that the August 1 tariffs Trump is threatening to implement are “a direct consequence of the lack of effective action on issues that impact not only trade, but also the health and national security of the United States and Mexico.”

He also accused, as Salvador Camarena points out, that in Mexico there have been “omissions at the government level that have jeopardized preferential access to the world’s most important market. What is done in the streets, in families, in towns, and in cities is endangered and destroyed from public offices.”

“It’s time to act. Not to justify or procrastinate. If Mexico wants to maintain and strengthen its place in North America, it must comply. Not partially. Not symbolically. It must fully comply with what it agreed to,” he threatened.