WATCHING President Bush wax poetic about U.S. relations with its neighbor to the south, you can't help but feel deja vu all over again.
We've heard this romantic tale before. It began when Bush declared at the beginning of his first term that he was truly, madly, deeply committed to a prosperous, free and democratic Western Hemisphere. It reached its pinnacle when he and former Mexican President Vicente Fox spent a year whispering sweet nothings in each other's ear.
But it began to sour after 9/11 and ended in tears when the U.S. announced its intention last year to build a wall on the border. Since then, tepid relations have been punctuated by spurts of security-driven and crisis-centered attention, accompanied by benign neglect. Bush's quick stopover in Mexico this week is a belated effort to renew a relationship gone sour.
He arrives at a time when grievances toward the U.S. are high and trust is in short supply. The warm, fuzzy noises that were heard when Bush called Mexico a "best friend" during his first year in office have been replaced by old furies. Constructive engagement has been replaced by silence or, worse yet, policy-by-snit. It's no wonder the two countries are disappointed in each other.
In Mexico today, many sectors share the perception that Fox's efforts -- however clumsy -- to promote an immigration agreement with the United States were shunned by an unreliable neighbor to the north. Fox raised expectations in Mexico about a grand immigration accord that was not to be. As a result, many Mexicans are wondering whether there truly is a reward to be gained in closer ties with the U.S., and why Bush is bothering to show up at all.
In light of Mexican ambivalence, it's understandable that Felipe Calderon's new presidency is shifting gears and rethinking how to better manage U.S.-Mexico relations. Calderon is not going to bet on Bush's goodwill or ask him for any favors. He's not going to make any big promises to the people of Mexico that he can't keep. He's not going to obsess over a grand immigration accord, but rather work behind the scenes on behalf of modest immigration reform.
Arturo Sarukhan -- Calderon's recently appointed ambassador to Washington -- argued in his confirmation hearing that U.S.-Mexico relations need to be "de-migratized." "The solution to the immigration problem needs to be based on a broader development strategy that includes job creation, foreign investment and the reduction of the wage gap between Mexico and the United States," he said. "For that to occur, Mexico will have to grow at a faster rate, and that will only happen if obstacles to growth are removed in Mexico."
