Pubdate: Sun, 06 Jul 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: RayMark Rinaldi
Page: 1D

MEXICO'S BORDER, HOT DOGS AND POT

Diplomat Dishes During Sit-Down

Mexico City - Much has happened to alter the relationship between the
United States and Mexico during the last two years, and Sergio Alcocer
Martinez de Castro has been at the center of it.

As Mexico's undersecretary for North American Affairs, he serves as
the country's point man on foreign policy toward its continental
neighbors and was among the key officials to meet with Colorado Gov.
John Hickenlooper during the Biennial of the Americas Summit-
primarily a trade meeting-held in Mexico City last month.

Alcocer articulates Mexico's view on everything from U.S. immigration
reform to cross-border drug trafficking, though his emphasis these
days is on money. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is attempting
the historic privatization of the country's nationalized energy and
manufacturing companies and is seeking foreign investment in oil and
gas operations, aeronautics and manufacturing.

Not surprisingly, Colorado businesses that have particular expertise
in those areas see the financial opportunity in that.

Alcocer sat for a talk about a wide range of topics, and the
conversation covered everything from hot dogs to marijuana.

This trade mission is in Mexico and some people in Colorado see a lot
of opportunity here now. This is an unusual time, no?

Alcocer: The relationship between Mexico and the U.S. is, for Mexico,
the most important and for the U.S., it should be the most important.

I think there is a lot of potential to increase the investment both
from Mexico to Colorado and from Colorado to Mexico because of the
type of activity that is done in Colorado, the expertise that Colorado
has developed in mining, in the energy sector, in aerospace and
aeronautics in general.

I think those are, just to mention a few examples, topics that are of
interest in Mexico. Mexico and the U.S. are intertwined in terms of
our economy and we need to be more competitive, in order to be, as a
region, the most competitive and dynamic.

As a region. You mean North America overall?

We should not think in terms of Mexico and the U.S. and Canada but
rather rethink in terms of the region itself, so it makes a lot of
sense to work together,

There's been a lot of talk here about this North American idea, but
that's not something we talk about so much in the U.S.

What we need to do, the three countries, is to develop a more intense
strategic communication so that we understand what is the value added
from one country into the economy of the other.

When you go to the baseball game and you purchase a hot dog and a
beer, well, it happens the bread is manufactured by a Mexican company,
and the hot dog itself is manufactured by a Mexican company.

Even more so, if you look at the contribution of Mexican migrants into
the U.S. economy, they are very entrepreneurial. If you sit at a table
in a restaurant and you see your peas and your carrots, they have been
harvested by migrants on a farm that is American but the workers are
Mexican. So there is a logical relationship also between the reform of
immigration and the U.S. economy and the regional economy.

What would you like to see happen with U.S. policy toward
immigration?

Alcocer: Well, I think this should be a common-sense reform. ... If
you have a reform in which these 6 or 7 million people that are in
the shadows can have the possibilities of improving their status and
becoming authorized aliens in the U.S. by paying taxes, the economy
is going to be improved. There is a pragmatism involved in this.

What is Mexico's interest, though, in immigrants being legal in the
U.S.?

For us, we try to maintain as close contact as possible to immigrants
of Mexican origination in the U.S. because, of course, we consider
them to be Mexicans. They were born, some of them, in Mexico, and
although they are first-or second-generation Americans, we consider
them to be Mexicans and we ... don't want them to lose their cultural
roots.

However, we think that, although they are already working in some
villages and farms and what have you, we consider that the best we can
do is to protect their interests and their legal rights, their labor
rights.

The position of the Mexican government is that we favor any reform
that improves the development of their inclusion in American society.

Question: Marijuana is legal in Colorado now. It's a great experiment
for us, but I wonder what you think of that and how that impacts you.

We consider that to be an experiment and we are looking very carefully
at what is going to be the outcome of the experiment.

Of course, it has an impact on how drugs are being marketed in North
America, which we must realize is again a regional issue. You have an
offer-and-demand type of process and, of course, it has consequences
in terms of security.

Question: When you say it impacts security, what do you mean?

Well, security in terms of trafficking drugs. Less and less seizures
at the border are being made of marijuana. You see more of the hard
drugs, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, which are more dangerous
drugs with more value. Then you see there are more crops in Mexico of
the plants that originate these types of drugs, and that has a
consequence in terms of the security of the country itself, of the
people.

Do you worry that the market will go toward those harder
drugs?

Alcocer: It's moving, because if you have Washington state and
Colorado producing their own marijuana, there is less need for
bringing marijuana from other places. Whether that's being planted in
Mexico or just being driven through Mexico, you are going to be
needing more of the other drugs, which are more dangerous.

Question: Some of Mexico's underground economy depends on drug money,
marijuana money. It's almost as if the legal market cuts those people
out. I don't know if that's a fair question to ask, but it seems like
it hurts your economy in away.

I don't know the numbers in terms of whether that is impacting
negatively the output of the economy and what it is really affecting
is the type of products that are being marketed in that subterranean
economy. ...

It's not that you are just moving 100 kilos of marijuana, it's that
you are moving 1 kilo of cocaine and heroin, but with a much higher
value in terms of the market. That imposes a different way of moving
that merchandise along the border and makes things more complicated in
terms of security both for the U.S. and Mexico.

I don't know whether the money that flows is larger than the amount of
dollars for just marijuana. I don't know.
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MAP posted-by: Matt