Juan Ramón de la Fuente has stepped down as Mexico’s foreign affairs minister for health reasons and is set to be replaced by Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco.
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced de la Fuente’s decision to resign on social media.
El Doctor Juan Ramón de la Fuente tomó la decisión de dejar el cargo de secretario de Relaciones Exteriores por motivos de salud. Es parte de nuestro proyecto y, cuando termine su rehabilitación, se reincorporará con nosotros en otra tarea.
He decidido proponer al Senado de la… pic.twitter.com/nxg1awheqi— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) April 1, 2026
According to the newspaper Reforma, the outgoing foreign minister advised colleagues of his resignation in a written message, telling them that he asked Sheinbaum to allow him to leave his position in order to attend to a spinal problem for which he has already undergone surgery on two occasions.
He told colleagues that he may need to have another operation in order to remain “active” and “productive.”
De la Fuente, a 74-year-old psychiatrist and former rector of the National Autonomous University, said in his message that Sheinbaum has appointed Velasco, deputy foreign minister for North America, as his successor.
“I know his leadership, I know his loyalty. He will be a foreign minister who provides great support to the president from this ministry,” he wrote of Velasco, who has headed up the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s North America department since 2020.
De la Fuente, who served as Mexico’s health minister in the 1990s and as the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations between 2018 and 2023, became foreign affairs minister at the start of Sheinbaum’s presidency on Oct. 1, 2024.
He has been particularly active in defending the rights of Mexicans who live abroad, especially in the United States. De la Fuente has also been involved in negotiations with the Trump administration on issues such as security and trade.
Velasco, 38, stood in as head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry late last year while de la Fuente was on medical leave.
Sheinbaum: ‘I told him, don’t go, Juan Ramón’
Accompanied by de la Fuente and Velasco, Sheinbaum announced the foreign minister’s decision to step down in a video message on Wednesday afternoon.
“I already told him, ‘Don’t go, Juan Ramón,’ but he has this health problem and he has decided that he needs this space for rehabilitation,” she said.
The president said that de la Fuente “will continue helping us on different issues” and will return to the government in an unspecified position when he has completed his rehabilitation.
Sheinbaum said that Velasco is an international relations “expert,” with “a lot of knowledge” about Mexico’s foreign policy. She wrote on social media that she had decided to propose his appointment as foreign minister to the Senate.
For his part, De la Fuente thanked the president for allowing him to be part of her “political project” — i.e., the “fourth transformation” movement founded by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and now led by Sheinbaum. He said that defending Mexico and assisting and supporting Mexicans abroad, regardless of their migratory status, had been “a great privilege.”
De la Fuente also said that Velasco has been a “great colleague” and declared he was certain that his tenure as foreign minister would be “very successful.”
Velasco thanked Sheinbaum for her confidence in him and said it was an “enormous honor” to be nominated as foreign minister. He said he would take on the position with “a lot of love for the people” and “a lot of commitment to our country.”
“Of course if the Senate ratifies me [as foreign minister], we’re going to continue with this work of defending the sovereignty of Mexico and protecting Mexicans across the whole world,” Velasco said.
With reports from Reforma, El Universal and Milenio
