Mexico: U.S. and Shared Responsibility
News in Mexico this week was dominated by the arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a two-day visit. With drug violence rising, Mrs. Clinton tried to dispel rumors that the Obama administration believes that Mexico is a failed state. Furthermore, Mrs. Clinton tried to make it clear that the United States shares responsibility for the violence in Mexico because of the high American demand for drugs and because of the arms that are brought into Mexico from the United States.
Mrs. Clinton noted that the United States is going to provide $80 million worth of Black Hawk helicopters to Mexico. Some of the funds used for these additional helicopters will come out of provisions of the Merida Initiative, a three-year $1.4 billion dollar security aid package for Mexico signed by President Bush last year. The Obama administration also announced that it would send additional federal agents and intelligence analysts to the border in an effort to prevent the violence from coming into the United States.
Mrs. Clinton also reassured Mexico that a current trading dispute would be resolved promptly. The Obama administration scrapped a program last week that allowed some Mexican trucks to operate within the United States. Some labor unions have argued that the Mexican trucks do not meet safety standards required in the U.S. and that many American jobs will be lost. Under NAFTA, the United States is supposed to allow Mexican trucks access to American roads. The Mexican government responded by raised tariffs on 90 U.S. products entering Mexico.
President Calderon expressed optimism with what Mexico sees as a changing attitude from Washington. He stated that while Mexico does not rely on financial support from the United States to fight drug cartels, more action is needed from the United States to curb demand in the United States and to limit the flow of arms into Mexico. Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa also commented that more was needed from the United States but that Mrs. Clinton’s comments go very much along the lines of cooperation that the Mexican government has been trying to build.
On Friday, President Calderon met with three U.S. congressmen, Silvestre Reyes, Ike Skelton, and Howard Berman and asked them to negotiate more restrictions on the sale of guns in the United States. Representative Reyes noted that while the U.S. Congress is open to discussing the issue, there is presently no plan to take legislative action for implementing gun control laws. Mr. Reyes did say that the U.S. congress would like to increase funding under the Merida Initiative to Mexico.
There was some skepticism in Mexico about President Obama’s alleged choice to be the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico. El Universal was reporting that the Obama administration has nominated Carlos Pascual, a Cuban-American, to be the new ambassador and has submitted Pascual’s name to the Mexican government. Pascual is a former ambassador to Ukraine and a fellow at the Brookings Institute. He is also an expert on failed states. Mexican leaders do not want to be lumped into the category of failed states and have wondered if the type of messenger will indicate what the message will be. Anyway, there is no word so far from the State Department or the Obama administration if Pascual is indeed the new ambassador.
Debate in Mexico has also converged on the proper role of the United States in this new era of ‘co-responsibility.’ President Calderon was quick to deny claims that he asked the Obama administration for more funds to fight narcotraffickers. He proclaimed that Mexico does not rely on the United States for financial assistance. On the other hand, La Jornada featured an interview with President Oscar Arias from Costa Rica, who argued that the United States should allocate more funds through the Merida Initiative to Mexico and Latin America if it wants to have more prosperous neighbors during this economic crisis.
