Why Mexico is counting on Obama
The following editorial appeared in Sunday's Washington Post:
Barack Obama starts from a very different point on relations with Mexico that George W. Bush did. He has never visited Latin America and spoke little about it during his campaign; his most notable interventions were to criticize standing or pending free-trade agreements with Mexico and Colombia, the two closest U.S. allies in the region.
The paradox here is that Obama, unlike Bush, has an objective and urgent interest in investing some of his diplomatic capital in Latin America — as Calderon pointed out during his visit here. The Mexican leader noted during a stop at The Post that Latin America in 2000 was ruled almost entirely by democracies. Since then, "what I have seen is an increase in anti-American feelings, which is worrisome," Calderon said. "And I have seen some threats to the principles and values we stand for: democracy and human rights, the market economy, property rights and the rule of law."
Some of those threats are well known to Americans, thanks to the grandstanding of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. But others have received surprisingly little attention — like Calderon's own fateful battle against the drug cartels that threaten to destroy Mexico's relatively fragile institutions. By the president's own account, some 6,000 persons were killed in drug-related violence during 2008, a level of bloodshed exceeding that of Iraq. The Bush administration initiated a $1.4 billion aid program to help Mexican security forces, and Congress has appropriated the first $400 million. But little has been done to stop the massive flow of weapons — not just guns but grenade launchers, night vision equipment and high explosives — from the United States to Mexican gangs.
According to Calderon, Obama said that
he would work on the smuggling problem; the two leaders
talked about infrastructure projects on both sides of the
border that could improve security and speed passage. While
he raised labor and environmental issues that are covered by
side accords to the North American Free Trade Agreement,
Obama did not propose reopening the treaty itself, according
to Calderon. That's a step in the right direction — but even
better would be a concerted effort by the new president to
counteract the region's larger drift away from democracy and
free markets. Obama will have an opportunity to launch such
an initiative soon, at the next summit of the Americas in
April. "In this particular moment," Calderon said, Obama
"has the leadership and the credibility to change that
situation quickly and restore the leadership of the United
States — the natural leadership, if I can say that — of the
region." That sounds like an opportunity to be boldly
seized.