Pubdate: Fri, 03 May 2013
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2013 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
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Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
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OBAMA TOUTS TRADE, COOPERATION IN VISIT TO MEXICO

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. will
cooperate with Mexico in fighting drug-trafficking and organized crime
in any way Mexico's government deems appropriate. Mexican President
Enrique Pena Nieto emphasized that the security relationship must be
expanded to focus on trade and commerce.

Appearing alongside Pena Nieto at a news conference, Obama recommitted
the U.S. to fighting the demand for illegal drugs in Mexico and the
flow of illegal guns across the border to Mexico, even as the southern
neighbor rethinks how much access it gives to American security agencies.

"I agreed to continue our close cooperation on security, even as the
nature of that cooperation will evolve," Obama said. "It is obviously
up to the Mexican people to determine their security structures and
how it engages with other nations - including the United States."

Obama's remarks come as Pena Nieto, in a shift from his predecessor,
has moved to end the widespread access that U.S. security agencies
have had in Mexico to help fight drug-trafficking and organized crime.
The White House has been cautious in its public response to the
changes, with the president and his advisers saying they need to hear
directly from the Mexican leader before making a judgment.

Pena Nieto, speaking at the news conference in Spanish, said his
government's new security strategy emphasizes reducing violence. But
he downplayed the notion that it would mean a diminished effort to
fight organized crime. "There is no clash between these two goals," he
said.

Obama also said he's optimistic that Congress will pass a new
immigration law this year. That debate shouldn't "bog down" over
demands by some Republican lawmakers that the U.S. verify the security
of its border with Mexico before moving ahead with measures to provide
a path to citizenship for those now in the country illegally.

The two leaders met Thursday on the first day of Obama's three-day
trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, his first visit to Latin America since
winning re-election. Obama was met at the steps of his plane by an
honor guard and a bugler before heading to the National Palace for his
meetings with the Mexican leader.

Seeking to put a new spin on a long-standing partnership, Obama is
promoting jobs and trade - not drug wars or border security - as the
driving force behind the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

However, the economic ties between the U.S. and Latin America that
Obama is seeking to promote have been overshadowed by security issues.
A violent drug war in Mexico has claimed more than 60,000 lives over
the past six years.

That has played into the immigration debate in the U.S., where many
Republican lawmakers have made hardening the U.S.- Mexico border a
condition for agreeing to measures to give illegal aliens a path to
citizenship and creating a guest-worker program.

"Mexico is the dominant foreign producer of heroin, marijuana, and
methamphetamines for the U.S. market," according to a threat
assessment submitted to Congress on March 13 by James Clapper,
director of national intelligence.

Mexican officials have ended the broad access the country has long
given to U.S. security agencies to help combat drug trafficking.
Instead, programs to fight drug cartels and organized crime will be
run through Mexico's Interior Ministry.

"What this new coordination seeks is to have more impact in less time
and to emphasize an area that hadn't been emphasized in the fight
against organized crime over the past months and years, which is the
area of prevention," Sergio Alcocer, Mexico's deputy foreign minister
for North American affairs, said in a telephone interview before Obama
arrived.

Since taking office in December, Pena Nieto has been working to change
the country's image from the home of a violent drug war to a center of
growing industry.

Obama's main message on his trip is the economic benefits from
cross-border immigration and trade.

Obama said it will help the economies of both countries to not be
constantly bogged down by border issues. And, he says if immigration
is going to get done, now is the time to do it.

In his discussions with Latin American leaders over the next two days,
Obama also is addressing an audience back home, where Congress next
week resumes negotiating possible changes to immigration law.

The domestic debate is intertwined with the thorniest issues in U.S.
relations with Latin America, including border security, drug
trafficking and free trade.

After Canada, Mexico is the biggest buyer of U.S. goods sold abroad,
with $216 billion in purchases last year, according to data compiled
by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The U.S., in turn, bought about
$278 billion, or 80 percent, of Mexico's exports, led by oil, cars,
automobile parts and flatscreen televisions.

Mexico's economic expansion has been changing the dynamics of the
immigration issue. The Mexican economy has grown at about twice the
pace of the U.S. since the end of 2009, lessening the lure of the U.S.
for Mexican workers. Net Mexican migration dropped to zero from
2005-10, according to a Pew Research Center study released a year ago.

Mexico is part of talks with the U.S. and nine other nations on
creating a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord and is seeking to
join the U.S. in talks on a free-trade agreement with the European
Union.

"We believe there's significant potential to increase and deepen our
economic ties," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser,
said at a briefing Wednesday. "The two leaders will really be lifting
up the economic portion of the relationship in their
discussions."

Meanwhile, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said a new
immigration bill that he helped write needs stronger border security
provisions or it will fail in the House and may even have trouble
getting through the Senate.

Rubio, who is the chief emissary to conservatives on the contentious
legislation, said he's been hearing concerns in recent days that more
work is needed to boost the bill's language on the border, and he said
he's committed to trying to make those changes.

Rubio didn't give specifics in an interview this week on The Sean
Hannity Show radio program. But a number of conservatives have
complained about "triggers" in the bill that aim to make new
citizenship provisions contingent on border security accomplishments.
Critics say those provisions are too weak, because in some cases the
Homeland Security secretary has the task of undertaking studies - but
not with delivering results - before millions of people in the U.S.
illegally can obtain legal status.
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MAP posted-by: Matt