MEXICO CITY — The junior Mexican diplomat, part of an official delegation to Washington, was caught in an undiplomatic moment: munching on peanuts piled on a napkin as he sat with political heavyweights including Mexican Cabinet secretaries and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The 2019 image of the peanut-chomping envoy quickly went viral, begetting a biting social-media hashtag: #LordCacahuates (Lord Peanuts).

It was the kind of protocol-busting moment that could derail a career. One wag wrote on X that the young diplomat had “behaved like a drunk in a dive bar under the stunned gaze of Nancy Pelosi.”

But Roberto Velasco Álvarez survived Peanutgate — with a flourish.

Last week, the Mexican Senate confirmed President Claudia Sheinbaum’s nomination of Velasco as the new secretary of foreign relations, Mexico’s equivalent of secretary of state.

Velasco, who is 38 but looks even younger, replaced Juan Ramón de la Fuente, 74, a veteran diplomat and academic who stepped down, he said, for health reasons.

This was a cultural, as well as generational, changing of the guard. Velasco, a millennial who came of age in the digital era, is among the youngest officials to head the secretariat. He is also the country’s first openly gay top diplomat.

Velasco is a bespectacled policy wonk known for discipline, discretion and a pragmatic bent, along with an unquestioned fealty to the ruling leftist Morena political bloc, according to reports in Mexico. Those traits, along with his standing as a protege of Marcelo Ebrard — Mexico’s secretary of the economy, who previously served as foreign minister — helped power Velasco’s meteoric career rise.

But observers say Velasco managed to vault over the traditional diplomatic career path thanks largely to something else: his deep knowledge of Mexico’s most crucial foreign policy concern — the United States. These days, it’s an essential specialty for a Mexican diplomat.

Under Sheinbaum, wrote columnist León Krauze in El Universal newspaper, the Mexican foreign ministry “has had one primordial objective: to appease Donald Trump.”

Along with a law degree from Mexico’s Iberoamerican University, Velasco holds a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago. According to his official biography, he even served as an intern in the Chicago mayor’s office, certainly a deep dive into a singular iteration of U.S. politics.

Before his promotion, Velasco oversaw relations with the United States and Canada as the ministry’s chief for North America. He has engaged in countless bilateral forums, work groups and discussions about immigration, drug trafficking, cross-border commerce and other concerns, and generally received good marks from U.S. officials.

On Thursday, Velasco received a congratulatory call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio, according to the State Department, “addressed efforts to deter mass illegal immigration, secure our borders and promote regional stability.”

Upon Velasco’s appointment, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson wrote on X that he wished him “every success” as the U.S. and Mexican governments work to “advance the historic cooperation led by” Presidents Trump and Sheinbaum.

That’s a generous reading of the bilateral zeitgeist at a tempestuous moment.

Velasco faces no shortage of challenges. Mexico has struggled to keep pace with Trump’s shifting and often incendiary demands on security, trade and immigration, among other issues. The tariff threats that the White House has wielded globally hit particularly hard in Mexico, with its dependence on northbound commerce.

The new secretary takes up his post at a time when traditional diplomacy often takes a back seat to Trump’s off-the cuff comments and social media outbursts.

In an address to fellow Mexican diplomats, the newly minted foreign minister alluded to the atmosphere of global tumult, without naming those responsible.

“I assume this responsibility at a moment when the international order, sustained by rules and clear and reasonable principles accepted by all, is undergoing a very profound reconfiguration,” Velasco said.

He will be among the negotiators at the helm of high-stakes talks already underway to renew the North American free trade accord, a linchpin of Mexico’s export-dominated economy. Trump has already mused about scrapping the agreement, which he signed into law during his first term.

Velasco is reported to be a regular participant in the frequent Sheinbaum-Trump phone confabs — conversations that have emerged as key indicators of how things are going between the neighboring nations. During morning news briefings, journalists quiz Sheinbaum about the minutest details of her latest chats with Trump.

The U.S. president, she often notes, has his “own way” of communicating. Her motto is to keep a “cool head” amid the maelstrom.

Trump has repeatedly charged that Mexico is “run by” the cartels — an assertion disputed by Sheinbaum, who spent much of the last year trying head off unilateral U.S. strikes against drug smuggling targets in Mexico. She has also pushed back hard against Trump’s tariff threats.

Likewise, Velasco has vowed that Mexico would never yield its “sovereignty,” assuring his fellow diplomats that the country would “maintain a cooperation in matters of security ... without subordination.”

While not doubting his capabilities and dedication, some have questioned Velasco’s relative lack of experience in a prestige post traditionally occupied by party notables with decades of public service.

And he is assuming control of a ministry that, by many accounts, is deeply troubled.

Various diplomats have complained bitterly that budget shortfalls have hit hard — especially when it comes to what many view as the ministry’s central responsibility: assisting millions of Mexican citizens in the United States, many now squarely in the crosshairs of Trump’s mass-deportation onslaught.

“Roberto Velasco seems to be an intelligent and well-educated person,” said one veteran Mexican diplomat posted to the United States, who asked to not be named because the person was not authorized to speak. “But the problems in the ministry go way beyond naming a new foreign minister.”

Velasco, in an interview last week with Mexico’s Radio Formula, vowed to seek “more resources” for Mexican consulates.

Consulates are overwhelmed, according to some diplomats, with so many Mexican nationals facing deportation — or worse fates. During the Trump administration, the Mexican government said last month, at least 14 Mexican citizens have died in U.S. immigration custody or during immigration enforcement operations.

“It’s shameful that in many cases we are leaving people on their own during the worst migration crisis that we have confronted,” the veteran diplomat said. “The official narrative is that the priority of our country’s foreign policy is to defend our compatriots in the United States. But it’s difficult to believe that when there is no leadership, no help, no resources.”

On Monday, U.S. authorities confirmed that yet another Mexican citizen had died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, “was found unresponsive” Saturday at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, ICE said in a statement.

The immigration roundups and deaths of Mexican migrants have prompted condemnation, notes of protests and calls for investigation from the Sheinbaum administration. But those actions seem more symbolic than substantive.

The White House has denied any wrongdoing and signaled no intention to modify its aggressive approach to immigration — a deep source of frustration for Sheinbaum and her new top diplomat.

In a news conference in March, just days before being named foreign secretary, Velasco condemned the deaths of Mexican citizens in U.S. custody as “painful, heartrending, and absolutely unacceptable for the government of Mexico.”

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(Sánchez Vidal is a special correspondent.)

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