Roundup: U.S. policy toward LatAm expected to continue without major changes after election

U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America is unlikely to have major changes no matter who wins the presidential election on Nov. 8, according to Mexican political experts.

Eduardo Rosales, an expert on international relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told Xinhua that he believes Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton will beat her Republican opponent Donald Trump.

According to Rosales, it is difficult to see a path to victory for Trump, though he has said he would take into account American interests first and foremost when engaging in foreign policy.

Rosales said that there will be nothing new if Clinton wins, "as it will be the continuity of a policy."

"Due to internal economic problems in the U.S., the relationship with Latin America has not been pushed as it should have. We will have to see if there is a new agenda," Rosales added.

"What is said during the campaign is one thing and what the new policy will be is another," Rosales pointed out.

Silvia Nunez, director of UNAM's North America Research Center (CISAN), also told Xinhua that the next U.S. administration "would continue its vision of maintaining a bilateral relation with each Latin American country, not as a whole."

"There are major divisions within Latin American countries and this scenario contributes to the U.S. (policy) instability in Latin America," said the researcher.

Nunez also believes that Clinton will reach the White House, where she will continue the current policy of closeness with Pacific Alliance countries (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), "because it suits them."

However, she added that time would tell how the United States would treat other countries which have been wary of signing such initiatives as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

For Elizabeth Gutierrez, also from CISAN, the U.S. policy toward the fight against drug trafficking with Mexico and Central America will remain largely the same.

All three experts interviewed by Xinhua agreed that other topics, such as migration, would be more difficult to resolve.

For Nunez, a priority for the new president will be defining a migration strategy with Mexico to deal with thousands of Central American migrants who cross the country to reach the U.S. border.

She warned that "violence centered in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) is a concern, not only for Mexico, but for the U.S. and all the Americas."

The experts met with the press on Thursday to discuss the third and final debate between Clinton and Trump, which took place on Wednesday.

Exit polls showed that the Democratic candidate took the advantage, with CNN saying 52 percent of its respondents thought Clinton had won, as opposed to 39 percent for Trump.

Mexico is upset about the scenario of Trump becoming president since he has maintained anti-immigrant rhetoric and plans to build a wall along the Mexican border for which he asked Mexico to pay. He has also said he would slap duty tariffs on any automotive imports from Mexico.

Besides pledging to deport around 11 million undocumented immigrants from the United States, Trump has also offended many Mexicans by calling them "criminals and rapists."

Whoever becomes the next U.S. president, Mexico will have to maintain a deeply strategic relationship with the United States, its main importer and exporter, the experts concluded.

In its United States Trade Developments 2014-2015 report, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said that the United States accounted for a third of foreign direct investment in Latin America over the last decade. Endi