Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Mexico and the European Union update their trade agreement, a Brazilian drug gang travels to Ukraine to get smart on drones, and exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado plans her return.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Mexico and the European Union update their trade agreement, a Brazilian drug gang travels to Ukraine to get smart on drones, and exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado plans her return.

The Latest EU-Latin American Trade Pact

Top European Union officials were in Mexico City last Friday for the first EU-Mexico summit in more than a decade. They left with something to show for it, signing an expanded free trade agreement expected to be ratified by both sides in the coming months. It comes on the heels of an EU trade deal with South American customs union Mercosur that took provisional effect earlier this year.

The original EU-Mexico deal covered only industrial goods, but the updated pact adds services and farm produce. It also includes measures to ease cross-border investments and allow European companies to bid for some Mexican government contracts.

The EU will additionally mobilize around $5.8 billion in investments in Mexico that are aligned with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Plan Mexico economic development strategy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Taken together, these announcements mean that Mexico and EU countries now have more options for doing business as they are rattled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. European Council President António Costa said the deal was about more than just trade, calling it a “true geopolitical statement” and proof of a joint commitment to “rules-based cooperation.”

The EU and Mexico are currently in different trade tussles with the United States. Brussels appears to be heading toward resolution with Washington after EU countries agreed to move forward on a draft U.S. trade deal this month. But Mexico remains in limbo as it kicks off a review process of its trade agreement with the United States and Canada, known as USMCA.

More than 80 percent of Mexico’s exports currently go to the United States. Though both Mexico and Canada have said they support extending USMCA with few changes, Trump administration officials have floated the possibility of exiting the deal.

Against that backdrop, Mexico’s agreement with the European Union “comes at a more than opportune moment,” former Mexican trade official Juan........

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