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U.S. ambassador to Mexico stepping down, and ex-AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre may be the top pick to fill the post

Jacobson is credited by many with almost single-handedly charting U.S. policy in Mexico, a country that stands out as Trump’s favorite international punching bag.

EL PASO — U.S. Ambassador Roberta S. Jacobson announced in a memo to her staff Thursday she plans to resign in May, joining a long list of other State Department diplomats who have bolted in recent months from countries considered U.S. key allies — perhaps none more important than Mexico.

Texas native Edward Earl Whitacre Jr., a former top executive at leading U.S. corporations, including Dallas-based AT&T, and friend of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, is considered the likely nominee to succeed Jacobson. That news was first reported Thursday by Mexico City-based Reforma newspaper and confirmed by sources to The Dallas Morning News, but the sources couldn't say whether Whitacre was interested in the post.

Efforts to reach Whitacre through calls and emails were unsuccessful Thursday.

Roberta Jacobson
Roberta Jacobson

Jacobson, one of the service’s most seasoned diplomats, with a career spanning over 30 years, wrote in her memo: “I have come to the difficult decision that it is the right time to move on to new challenges and adventures. This decision is all the more difficult because of my profound belief in the importance of the U.S.-Mexico relationship and the knowledge that it is at a crucial moment.”

She plans to leave May 5, the memo states.

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Jacobson’s pending departure comes at a critical time in U.S.-Mexico relations. Mexico will hold presidential elections July 1. Top trade negotiators for the U.S., Canada and Mexico are currently meeting in Mexico City for Round 7 of trade negotiations, which have been clouded by threats from President Donald J. Trump to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump insists that Mexico will pay for the wall he wants built along the southern border and has vowed to deport millions of Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally.

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Jacobson is credited by analysts, experts and former diplomats with almost single-handedly being the calming force, quietly directing U.S. policy in Mexico, a country that stands out as Trump’s favorite international punching bag.

Edward Whitacre
Edward Whitacre

Former U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, a Texan, said Jacobson “had managed to be a steady hand on the tiller and a clear voice in what sometimes seemed like a storm.”

But Garza praised Whitacre, whom he’s known for more than 30 years, as “an iconic Texan.”

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“He’s plain spoken, has got tons of integrity and can get things done,” he said. “That, and he knows Mexico like few others — the history, culture, people and business. A really great choice.”

Whitacre is a graduate of Texas Tech University who began his career at Southwestern Bell in 1963 as a facility engineer and rose to become chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. The company’s headquarters in downtown Dallas is dubbed Whitacre Tower in honor of his 44 years with the business — nearly half of that as chairman and CEO.

Whitacre lives in San Antonio, but from time to time he still commutes to Detroit, where he was tapped in 2008 to lead the restructuring of GM after the nation’s financial crisis.

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Dennis Nixon, chairman and CEO of International Bank of Commerce Bank in Laredo, or IBC, has known Whitacre for two decades, calling him a “very accomplished businessman and community leader.”

“He had a lot of dealings in Mexico because of the telephone company,” he said.

Well connected

Nixon observed that Whitacre doesn’t speak Spanish — a “big negative, but in my view the only negative." He also noted that Whitacre "knows a lot of people in Mexico,” including one of the most powerful men in the world, Carlos Slim, dating back to when Slim purchased Telmex in its 1990 privatization.

Gerald Schwebel, executive vice president of IBC Bank, is another of Whitacre’s longtime acquaintances.

“I would love for Roberta to stay,” Schwebel said, “but of all the names, Ed would be a real good choice. He’s a Tillerson guy, and he’s a Texan” — something that’s important because Texas is a border state, with trade to Mexico accounting for 40 percent of the state’s exports, or an estimated $90 billion. Moreover, he said, as former head of GM, Whitacre has a keen insight into the cross-border supply chain.

“Ed brings much-needed business experience,” Schwebel said. “But Roberta has important diplomatic skills and experiences that blended very well during these difficult times in the United States and Mexico. She has been a great asset for our two countries at a critical time. She was the right person for the right time.”

Shannon K. O’Neil, a senior fellow of Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead, added that “Roberta brought a deep understanding of Mexico to her tenure as ambassador, adeptly guiding the dozens of issues and areas that touch the bilateral relationship every day.”

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Andrew Selee, a longtime Mexico expert and president of the Migration Policy Institute, said of Jacobson: “Even during a period where the relationship became increasingly turbulent, she remained widely respected in Mexico as well as inside the U.S. government.”

Rafael Fernandez de Castro, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, said that if Whitacre is indeed nominated to replace Jacobson, “he will have big shoes to fill, and it remains to be seen if he will be able to convince Mr. Trump of the complexity and importance of the U.S.-Mexico relationship.”

Other departures

Jacobson’s is just the latest in a string of State Department departures. In early February, Tom Shannon, the State Department’s top career diplomat and another official with extensive experience in the Americas, announced that he would retire as soon as a successor for his post was chosen and ready to fill the job.

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Joseph Yun, the special envoy for North Korea, announced this week he was retiring effective Friday.

Another veteran diplomat, Ambassador to Panama John Feeley, announced last month he is retiring in mid-March.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.