MEXICO CITY — With a veritable war swirling through the nation and seeping from its borders, Mexico has arisen as a foreign policy emergency for President Obama, and a test of his ability to bring fundamental change to one of Washington's most important relationships.
Like much of the rest of Latin America, the Mexico that receives a visit from Obama today yearns for the kind of new partnership that the president espouses. U.S.-Latin American relations are at their lowest point in years and Obama's pledge to "re-order" the agenda is welcome.
But beyond spoken commitments, Mexico is looking for concrete assistance in several areas. Powerful drug-trafficking organizations have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed more than 10,000 lives in just over two years and could threaten the very ability of President Felipe Calderon to govern. Calderon has repeatedly called on Washington to do more to stop the flow of weapons and drug money from the U.S. and to curb the demand for the tons of cocaine and marijuana that Mexican traffickers send northward.
"It is essential that we make the U.S. see the need to fully assume shared responsibility in this fight," Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said. "The Obama visit is a chance to cement new cooperation."
Mexico is also eager to see Washington make immigration reforms and pay greater attention to trade issues, but fears those matters might be obscured by the drug war.
Obama arrives this morning and will remain in Mexico less than 24 hours before continuing Friday to Trinidad and Tobago for the fifth Summit of the Americas, a three-day meeting of the hemisphere's 34 elected heads of state and government. This is Obama's presidential debut in Latin America.
Despite Mexico's urgent needs, the Obama stopover is largely symbolic. It is meant as a show of support for Calderon's administration and reassurance to Mexico and the region of U.S. engagement.
The trip "is designed to send a very clear signal to our friends in Mexico City that we have a series of shared challenges as it relates to the economy, as it relates to security, insecurity, the threat of violence, and the impact of drug trafficking on both our countries," said Denis McDonough, director of strategic communications at the National Security Council.
Thus far, the Obama administration has promised to put more agents along the border, step up southbound inspections, accelerate release of portions of the $1.4 billion in aid allotted under the so-called Merida Initiative and reexamine domestic drug-use policies.
