In Mexico Visit, Obama to Pivot From Security to Economy

The Wall Street Journal, 4/30/13

President Barack Obama will seek to spotlight Mexico’s recent economic strides during a visit there this week, part of a broader push by both nations to move beyond common concerns over drugs and crime. “A lot of the focus is going to be on economics,” Mr. Obama told a news conference on Tuesday. “We’ve spent so much time on security issues between the United States and Mexico that sometimes I think we forget this is a massive trading partner responsible for huge amounts of commerce and huge numbers of jobs on both sides of the border.”

The two-day trip—Mr. Obama’s fourth to Mexico as president—comes amid momentous changes for both countries. In the U.S., Congress is debating how to overhaul its immigration system, an effort that, if successful, could eliminate a long-standing source of friction between the two countries.

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Will tensions over security spoil the Obama-Peña Nieto Summit?

AULA Blog, 4/16/13

The meeting in December between recently re-elected President Barack Obama and President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto was marked by cordiality and a desire to talk about anything but the often grisly drug-related violence in Mexico during the previous six years.  Since then, Peña Nieto has continued the changed emphasis, aided by headlines pivoting to positive stories.  Mexico has been recently hailed for its economic growth, particularly in export-oriented manufacturing, and for a series of political compromises that The Washington Post favorably compared with the U.S. Congressional stalemate.

Despite optimistic claims from the government, Mexican media reports indicate that drug-related violence continues at nearly the same pace as last year.  (Click here for a summary and analysis by our colleagues at InSight Crime.)  Moreover, pressure is growing on questions of human rights violations committed in the name of the war on drugs.  When Presidents Peña Nieto and Obama meet again in early May, holding back a renewed focus on security is likely to be a challenge.

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Academics call for changes in U.S.-Mexico relations

UT San Diego, 4/5/2013

Scholars from Tijuana and San Diego are key contributors to a new book that looks at the changing relationship between the United States and Mexico, examining issues such as immigration, trade, drug trafficking and water resources.

Among the recommendations of “Mexico and the United States: The Politics of Partnership,” are: increasing investment in infrastructure and education; promoting debate about whether to decriminalize marijuana possession; and collaborating on the management of aquifers beneath the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Mission Impossible? (Spanish)

Poder 360, 2/1/2013

La ambiciosa y controvertida propuesta del presidente Barack Obama para que el Congreso de Estados Unidos reinstituya la prohibición de las armas de asalto tipo militar, imponga la revisión universal de antecedentes y reduzca la capacidad de los cargadores de balas, es buena noticia para México.

“Si estas medidas llegaran a concretarse tendrían un efecto importante en la violencia en México”, declaró a PODER Eric Olson, director asociado del Programa Latinoamericano del Woodrow Wilson Center. “Ninguna medida va a acabar por sí misma, o en conjunto, con el problema del tráfico de armas a México, pero éstas y otras pueden hacer más difícil ese proceso, elevando los costos del negocio ilegal y contribuyendo así a la reducción en el trafico”.

http://www.viewdocsonline.com/document/h93cww

El Palenque Summary: The Mexican View on Bilateral Relations

Translated by Ashley N. Garcia, Staff Intern for the Mexico Institute

Last week in conjunction with El Palenque, a well-known and widely consulted discussion forum on the Animal Politico website, the Mexico Institute posted a question to the Palenqueros concerning the major challenges and opportunities facing the United States-Mexico relationship. This is the first of what we hope will be a long-term collaboration with Animal Politico, which will also carry a Spanish language blog from the Mexico Institute, titled “La Vista desde DC.” Here we present a summary of the views and opinions presented in the forum.

Op-ed: Obama’s Agenda in 2013 (In Spanish)

By Andrew Selee, El Universal, 1/20/2013

Barack Obama begins his second presidential term with an electoral mandate and a cabinet undergoing dramatic changes. He will face three main challenges – the federal budget, immigration reform and gun control – that will require negotiating with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The outcome will have great implications for the future of U.S.-Mexico relations.

These three topics are important to Mexico and Mexicans for different reasons, and in terms of migration and firearms, the Mexican government can play an important role through consistent, well-calibrated, discrete efforts.

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Mexico eyes U.S. gun policies, hopes for shift

CNN, 1/16/2013

Mexicans are watching closely as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to announce his administration’s proposals to stem gun violence.

The country’s top diplomat in the United States says the tragic Connecticut school shooting may have “opened a window of opportunity” for Obama to fix a problem that has long plagued both sides of the border.

“The Second Amendment … is not, was never and should not be designed to arm foreign criminal groups,” Mexican Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters last week.

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Mexico, U.S. ties ripe for major expansion [Op-ed]

Andrew Selee and Chris Wilson, Op-ed, CNN, 11/27/2012

As they meet for the first time Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto will be operating in a landscape of U.S.-Mexico relations that has changed profoundly since Mexico’s outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, took office six years ago.

The rise of Mexico: America needs to look again at its increasingly important neighbour

The Economist, 11/24/2012

NEXT week the leaders of North America’s two most populous countries are due to meet for a neighbourly chat in Washington, DC. The re-elected Barack Obama and Mexico’s president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto, have plenty to talk about: Mexico is changing in ways that will profoundly affect its big northern neighbour, and unless America rethinks its outdated picture of life across the border, both countries risk forgoing the benefits promised by Mexico’s rise.

The White House does not spend much time looking south. During six hours of televised campaign debates this year, neither Mr Obama nor his vice-president mentioned Mexico directly. That is extraordinary. One in ten Mexican citizens lives in the United States. Include their American-born descendants and you have about 33m people (or around a tenth of America’s population). And Mexico itself is more than the bloody appendix of American imaginations. In terms of GDP it ranks just ahead of South Korea. In 2011 the Mexican economy grew faster than Brazil’s—and will do so again in 2012.

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How Americans View Mexico – In One Word [Op-ed]

Op-ed, James Taylor & Mie Shannnon, National Journal, 11/20/2012

In 2008, Mexican president Felipe Calderón traveled to Washington to meet with then President-elect Barack Obama. Part of their discussion focused on the worrisome rise in anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America, and Calderón urged his new U.S. counterpart to act quickly to address our nation’s tarnished image.

Four years later, the roles are reversed. A Mexican president-elect is slated to meet with Obama next week, and this time it is Mexico’s incoming leader Enrique Peña Nieto who is inheriting a battered international image and must act quickly to shore up his country’s brand.

Today our consulting firm Vianovo — in partnership with leading ad agency GSD&M — is releasing a new in-depth survey of U.S. attitudes toward Mexico that underscores the enormity and urgency of that challenge (see full survey toplines and charts).

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