"So, we are creating the conditions for a presidential election in 2018 in Mexico, where the winner could well be an anti-American populist, anti-imperialist, what have you, in Mexico, something we haven't seen in decades, decades, and decades," Gutierrez stated in opening remarks at the Atlantic Council in Washington on Wednesday.
Gutierrez said that leaving NAFTA, a free trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, could be a short-term tactical win but a strategic defeat for the Trump administration.
"We need to have the wisdom to not go for a tactical victory that down the road we realize it was a strategic defeat," Gutierrez said.
Trump has vowed to withdraw the United States from NAFTA, calling it a very bad deal for US businesses and Americans.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly are in Mexico on Wednesday to discuss with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and the country's ministers border security, as well as trade and cooperation.
