List of ambassadors of the United States to Mexico
The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Mexico since 1823, when Andrew Jackson was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to that country. Jackson declined the appointment, however, and Joel R. Poinsett became the first U.S. envoy to Mexico in 1825. The rank of the U.S. chief of mission to Mexico was raised from Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in 1898.
Ambassador of the United States to Mexico | |
---|---|
Embajador de Estados Unidos en México | |
since September 14, 2021 | |
Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | Joel Roberts Poinsett as Minister |
Formation | June 1, 1825 |
Website | U.S. Embassy - Mexico City |
Normal diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico have been interrupted on four occasions:
- From December 28, 1836, to July 7, 1839 (following the secession of Texas)
- From March 28, 1845, to October 2, 1848 (during the Mexican–American War)
- From June 21, 1858, to April 6, 1859 (during the War of the Reform)
- From March 18, 1913, to March 3, 1917 (during the Mexican Revolution; the U.S. embassy was closed on April 22, 1914, following the U.S. occupation of Veracruz). Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson was recalled after being implicated in a plot (La decena trágica) to overthrow President Francisco I. Madero. Rather than immediately formally appoint a new ambassador, Woodrow Wilson dispatched ex-Minnesota Governor John Lind as his personal envoy to handle Mexican diplomatic affairs.
In addition, the U.S. legation in Mexico was headed by an interim Chargé d'Affaires from April 1864 to August 1867, during the final years of the French Intervention.
List of ambassadors
editThe following is a list of Ambassadors the United States has sent to Mexico, and other representatives that have served a similar function. The exact title given by the United States State Department to this position currently is "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary."
Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821; so the first three men on this list were sent by President Madison during the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821). William Shaler participated in the 1812–13 Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition, which was a private military campaign to overthrow the Royalists and resulted in the roadside murder of two provincial governors and about a dozen other officials.
Image | Representative | Title | From | To | Appointed by |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Josh Zellers | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1810 | 1812 | James Madison | |
John H. Robinson | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1812 | 1814 | ||
James Wilkinson | U.S. Envoy | 1816 | 1825 | ||
Joel Roberts Poinsett | Minister | 1825 | 1829 | John Quincy Adams | |
Anthony Butler | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1829 | |||
Chargé d'Affaires | 1829 | 1835 | Andrew Jackson | ||
William A. Slacum | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1835 | 1836 | ||
Powhatan Ellis | Chargé d'Affaires | 1836 | |||
Robert Greenhow | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1837 | |||
Powhatan Ellis | Minister | 1839 | 1842 | Martin Van Buren | |
Henry E. Lawrence | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1842 | John Tyler | ||
Waddy Thompson Jr. | Minister | 1842 | 1844 | ||
Moses Yale Beach | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1843 | |||
Gilbert L. Thompson | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1844 | |||
Wilson Shannon | Minister | 1844 | 1845 | ||
John Slidell | Minister | 1845 | James K. Polk | ||
David Conner | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1846 | |||
Nathan Clifford | Minister | 1848 | 1849 | ||
Robert P. Letcher | Minister | 1849 | 1852 | ||
Robert Greenhow | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1850 | |||
George G. Goss | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1850 | 1852 | ||
George W. Slacum | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1851 | Millard Fillmore | ||
Edward Smith | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1852 | |||
Alfred Conkling | Minister | 1852 | 1853 | ||
George E. Cooper | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1853 | |||
Christopher L. Ward | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1853 | |||
James Gadsden | Minister | 1853 | 1856 | ||
Richard S. Spofford | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1854 | Franklin Pierce | ||
John Forsyth Jr. | Minister | 1856 | 1858 | ||
William M. Churchwell | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1858 | James Buchanan | ||
Alfred Mordecai | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1858 | |||
Duff Green | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1859 | |||
David R. Porter | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1859 | |||
Robert Milligan McLane | Minister | 1859 | 1860 | ||
Henry Roy de la Reintrie | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1860 | |||
John B. Weller | Minister | 1860 | 1861 | ||
Thomas Corwin | Minister | 1861 | 1864 | ||
Robert W. Shufelt | Special Diplomatic Agent | 1862 | Abraham Lincoln | ||
Lewis D. Campbell | Minister | 1866 | 1867 | Andrew Johnson | |
Marcus Otterbourg | Minister | 1867 | |||
William S. Rosecrans | Minister | 1868 | 1869 | ||
Thomas H. Nelson | Minister | 1869 | 1873 | ||
John W. Foster | Minister | 1873 | 1880 | Ulysses S. Grant | |
Philip Hicky Morgan | Minister | 1880 | 1885 | Rutherford B. Hayes | |
Henry R. Jackson | Minister | 1885 | 1886 | ||
Thomas Courtland Manning | Minister | 1886 | 1887 | Grover Cleveland | |
Edward S. Bragg | Minister | 1888 | 1889 | ||
Thomas Ryan | Minister | 1889 | 1893 | ||
Isaac P. Gray | Minister | 1893 | 1895 | ||
Matt Whitaker Ransom | Minister | 1895 | 1897 | Grover Cleveland | |
Powell Clayton | Minister | 1897 | 1898 |
Image | Ambassador | Presentation | Termination | Appointed by |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powell Clayton | January 3, 1899 | May 26, 1905 | William McKinley | |
Edwin H. Conger | June 15, 1905 | August 3, 1905 | Theodore Roosevelt | |
David Eugene Thompson | March 8, 1906 | December 1, 1909 | ||
Henry Lane Wilson | March 5, 1910 | February 18, 1913 | William Howard Taft | |
Henry P. Fletcher | March 3, 1917 | January 25, 1919 | Woodrow Wilson | |
Charles B. Warren | March 31, 1924 | July 22, 1924 | Calvin Coolidge | |
James R. Sheffield | October 15, 1924 | June 5, 1927 | ||
Dwight Morrow | October 29, 1927 | September 17, 1930 | ||
J. Reuben Clark | November 28, 1930 | February 14, 1933 | Herbert Hoover | |
Josephus Daniels | April 24, 1933 | November 9, 1941 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
George S. Messersmith | February 24, 1942 | May 15, 1946 | ||
Walter C. Thurston | June 17, 1946 | November 4, 1950 | Harry S. Truman | |
William O'Dwyer | November 23, 1950 | December 6, 1952 | ||
Francis White | April 28, 1953 | June 30, 1957 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
Robert C. Hill | July 25, 1957 | December 1, 1960 | ||
Thomas C. Mann | May 8, 1961 | December 22, 1963 | John F. Kennedy | |
Fulton Freeman | April 6, 1964 | January 6, 1969 | Lyndon B. Johnson | |
Robert H. McBride | July 22, 1969 | January 25, 1974 | Richard Nixon | |
Joseph J. Jova | January 30, 1974 | February 21, 1977 | ||
Patrick J. Lucey | July 19, 1977 | October 31, 1979 | Jimmy Carter | |
Julian Nava | May 7, 1980 | April 3, 1981 | ||
John Gavin | June 5, 1981 | June 10, 1986 | Ronald Reagan | |
Charles J. Pilliod Jr. | November 4, 1986 | April 7, 1989 | ||
John Negroponte | July 3, 1989 | September 5, 1993 | George H. W. Bush | |
James R. Jones | September 10, 1993 | June 25, 1997 | Bill Clinton | |
Jeffrey Davidow | August 5, 1998 | September 14, 2002 | ||
Tony Garza | November 22, 2002 | January 20, 2009 | George W. Bush | |
Carlos Pascual | August 9, 2009 | March 19, 2011 | Barack Obama | |
Earl Anthony Wayne | August 2, 2011 | July 31, 2015 | ||
Roberta S. Jacobson | June 20, 2016 | May 5, 2018 | ||
Christopher Landau | August 26, 2019 | January 20, 2021 | Donald Trump | |
Ken Salazar | September 14, 2021 | present | Joe Biden |