Mexico City - Since February, when Eduardo Medina Mora resigned to become a Supreme Court justice, Mexico has been without an ambassador in the United States. On Tuesday, President Peña Nieto nominated an academic from the State of Mexico who is currently teaching in Boston to take up the post.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said the new envoy will be Miguel Basáñez, who is currently an adjunct professor who teaches Culture, Human Values and Development, and directs the Judiciary Reform Program at Tufts University's Fletcher School. He was previously a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan.

Although Basáñez is an academic with no prior diplomatic experience, the new ambassador has a Law degree from UNAM; and has held various positions in public administration, among them Enrique Peña Nieto's chief pollster when the president was governor of the State of Mexico (2005-2011), and attorney general of the State of Mexico.

According to Foreign Relations Secretary José Antonio Meade, Dr. Basáñez is "quite well known and well respected in both Mexico and the United States... He is extremely knowledgeable with regard to our special bilateral relationship with the US and thanks to his comprehensive understanding we will be able to develop a profound dialogue with the Obama administration."