Opinion Archive

Agustin Barrios Gomez, president of SolutionsAbroad.com, has been commissioned by the newly-relaunched English-language daily The News to produce a weekly opinion column on Mexican current affairs. The column is published every Wednesday in the paper and also here online. Our president is a member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs and is an analyst of politics in North America with a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

What to Make of Obama and Mexico

November 12, 2008

Seven years ago, one month into his administration, President Bush made Mexico his first destination as President. He called US-Mexican relations the most important bilateral ties his country had. Having been brought up, in part, by a Mexican nanny, President Bush's relationship with our country was personal, as well as professional. Then, five months later, terrorists blew Mexico off the presidential agenda.

Mexico has not become any less important. As mentioned in this column last week, it is key to resolving some of the most pressing issues for the US: immigration, security, trade, the economy, the environment, etc. But there is a tired frustration that has crept into the relationship because of dashed hopes and seemingly never-ending violence on this side of the border. The day-to-day relationship remains as robust as ever, perhaps the most intimate between two sovereign countries anywhere. There are 55 clogged lanes of traffic between the two countries. 27 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans live in the US, making them a majority within the country's largest minority, while 1 million Americans live here. The US diplomatic presence in Mexico remains the largest (permanent) mission in the world, with Mexico City being the only place outside of Washington where every US government dependency is represented. At the same time, Mexico's consular presence in the US is by far the most extensive of any country anywhere.

But President-elect Obama's relationship with Mexico, a country he visited once when he was in college, will not be personal. That privilege belongs to Indonesia, where he grew up, and Kenya, where he still has much of his family. Anecdotally, according to a Washington Post profile, when he poses for pictures he gets a smile by calling for people to say "tequila". He also once said that his favorite song is "México Lindo y Querido". But perhaps the closest personal connection he has with Mexico is through his sister, Maya Soetoro, who visited Mexico City during the campaign. She loves Mexico, speaks fluent Mexican Spanish, and has spent a significant amount of time in this country.

But beyond the lack of personal ties, there are some good omens. The fact that President-elect Obama called President Calderón is a sign that the transition team is on the ball with respect to US-Mexico relations. During the call, not only did he recognize the significance of Minister Juan Camilo Mouriño's death, but he did not mince words when talking about winning the war agains narcotraffic, offering "decisive" help.

Unknown unknowns

During the campaign Obama attacked NAFTA, but said that prosperity in Latin America, and especially in Mexico, is important to the US national interest. During an interview with talk radio's Piolín, he promised to push for "comprehensive" immigration reform before the end of his first year in office. People believed him: an estimated 83% of Americans born in Mexico voted for Senator Obama. He was conscious enough of these votes to air a thank-you TV ad in which he spoke in Spanish. Despite the fact that he does not actually speak Spanish, his excellent pronounciation allowed him to pull it off nicely.

Accentuate the positive

Of more urgency, the day after the election the Government Accountability Office noted that the $5 billion dollars that have been spent on Plan Colombia (the precursor to the Mérida Initiative) have not shut down drug production. Nevertheless, the GAO report showed that it had improved security inside Colombia. Given that Mexico's internal security situation is currently of much more strategic concern than drug use within the US, it bolsters the case for the Mérida Initiative. Whether or not Mr. Mouriño's plane crash was a response to the capture of Eduardo Arellano Félix a week before, the threat to President Calderón in particular, and his administration in general, is both constant and very real. If the worst were to come to pass, a failed state attached to the American Southwest would dwarf even the biggest concerns in the Middle East.

Fortunately, Mr. Obama is a serious (and seriously intelligent) man. He exudes gravitas and, as The News columnist Amy Glover has pointed out, he is a quick learner. There are a whole host of things that the Mexican government needs to talk about with the new administration, but a priority should be to get him down here, even if it's during a visit to San Diego, or El Paso. In an article on his plans for US-Mexico relations that Senator Obama published in the Dallas Morning News, in February, he promised yearly presidential summits. He should not wait until he takes office in January 2009. For the sake of our shared future, it is time President-elect Obama personally felt the urgent intensity of the Mexican abrazo.

For the latest thought-provoking article by Agustin Barrios Gomez please go to our Opinion Column page

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