Taking the transgenic “contamination” of Mexican maize as its starting point, this article analyzes Mexican biosafety policies during the 2000s. We show how the issue of genetic “contamination” underwent various “distancing” strategies by different Mexican government authorities, that is, being removed from the agenda or sidelined. This distancing reflects the essentially symbolic character of biosafety policy in Mexico, which uses no concrete mechanism to control the release of GMOs into the environment, and is primarily intended to display ostensible respect for international environmental requirements (the Cartagena Protocol) without hindering the grain trade with the United States.