On the day of his inauguration on Monday, January 20, US President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, as he had promised during his campaign. Many of these first measures concern immigration, particularly from Mexico. On February 1, Trump also imposed tariffs of 25% on Mexican and Canadian imports.
The country has been in Trump's sights since his first term as president. During his 2016 campaign, he made inflammatory statements against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of all kinds of crimes and promising to build a wall on the border between the two countries.
Since the birth of the United States at the end of the 18th century and Mexican independence in 1821, relations between the two countries have always been ambivalent: A border war pitted them against each other in 1846, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 drove many Mexicans across the border. At the same time, economic relations between the two developed throughout the 20th century, as did Mexican immigration to the US and the influence of drug cartels.
In our four-minute video, Le Monde takes a look back at the complex historical relationship between the US and Mexico. To learn more about the activities of Mexican drug cartels on US soil, you can also watch our video investigation "Narco Business."