Thread: U.S. expected to seek closer ties with Mexico

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Posted on Thu, Sep. 28, 2006

U.S. expected to seek closer ties with Mexico


By Alfredo Corchado

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Mexico's controversial presidential election has made the U.S. focus more closely on the country, with American officials planning to recommend policies to President-elect Felipe Calderon that would strengthen bilateral ties.

The U.S. will urge the incoming government to place a priority on building a closer partnership in the fight against drug traffickers, working together to attract new investment, improving infrastructure in Mexico as a way to help stop illegal immigration, and strengthening the rule of law, said U.S. officials involved in formulating policy.

The U.S. must provide enough support to ensure that Calderon successfully tackles Mexico's deep poverty, something that was a central theme in the campaign of his defeated rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and that resonates among Mexicans, the officials said in separate interviews.

"If Calderon doesn't address the social development, the poverty and the inequality issues that Lopez Obrador has raised, he won't have a successful presidency," one of the officials said.

Some U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive relationship between the two countries.

Speaking Wednesday at Southern Methodist University, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James Jones credited Lopez Obrador for making poverty a focus of the campaign and said that Calderon now must address the issue, not with giveaways, but with programs to improve education, health care and infrastructure.

"Alleviation of poverty is one of his priorities, if not his top priority," Jones said during a panel discussion of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.

Calderon, of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, was named president-elect by the Federal Electoral Tribunal two months after the July 2 election. He narrowly defeated Lopez Obrador, who contested the results, claiming widespread fraud.

Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, has said he will never recognize Calderon's presidency and has vowed to set up some kind of parallel government.

Since being named president-elect, Calderon has identified three priorities for his administration: creating jobs, shoring up public security and improving the lives of poor people.

Some American policymakers had been concerned that a victory by Lopez Obrador might have further complicated U.S. relations with Latin America, where recent elections have resulted in leftist governments in Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, in addition to Cuba.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba have either difficult or nonexistent relations with the U.S.

One U.S. official acknowledged that Washington greeted Calderon's win with a "big sense of relief" and was buoyed by the president-elect's signal that he would try to forge a working coalition in Congress and even invite people from other parties to join his government.

"There is an opportunity that Mexico can get the reforms that Fox - or, quite honestly, (former President Ernesto) Zedillo - began, and do a lot of the things that Fox didn't get done," one of the officials said. "Some of them are addressing equality and poverty. And now we feel we have six more years to help Mexico in whatever way we can."

Those six years can be used to strengthen cooperation between the two neighbors, said Crescencio Arcos, assistant secretary for international affairs in the Department of Homeland Security.

"That's a huge plus," he said. "We hope Calderon continues to improve on the institutional relationship between the U.S. and Mexico on law enforcement. I think it's been (getting better), but we're still not there yet."

The U.S. government does not plan to "significantly" increase aid to Mexico, one of the officials said.

"There may be some more, but not much more," the official said. "Mexico is not Haiti. It doesn't have a problem with balance of payments.

"I actually feel fairly optimistic about Mexico's chances to pull itself up with the right policies. I don't think that an infusion of U.S. aid is what they need. They need support from us in the financial institutions and they need support from us on positive investment, and we're prepared to do that."

Some analysts said Calderon would have to be creative in addressing the country's pressing problems.

"He can use tax incentives and special concessions, such as energy," Jones, the former ambassador, said in an interview. "He can also appeal to the multi-lateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank and others, to make an effort to finance infrastructure projects.

"He has a great opportunity to bring to the surface things that should have been done in the past that they have talked about, but didn't do much."

Andrew D. Selee, who heads the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, applauded the U.S. approach, but said the government must do more than "pay lip service to Mexico."

"This is a critical moment for Mexico, and the economic and political ramifications for the United States are mind-boggling," he said. "If the United States wants the Calderon administration to succeed, it must look at Mexico as a long-term investment. It's in the national interest of the United States."

The U.S. officials said Washington is pleased that Calderon has decided not to make migration the centerpiece of Mexico-U.S. relations - unlike Fox.

Arturo Sarukhan, Calderon's chief foreign policy adviser, said migration is "one of four wheels that will pull the cart" of Mexico-U.S. policy.

One of the U.S. officials said Sarukhan's words represent "very smart talk," noting, "Immigration is a domestic issue for the United States."

"I would like to see the Mexican government spending more time worrying about keeping people from coming to the United States and less time worrying about them once they're here," the official said.

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© 2006, The Dallas Morning News.

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US officials don't want their names printed. Hmmmm....

improving infrastructure in Mexico as a way to help stop illegal immigration

Say WHAT??? are they freakin serious? Remember, WE, Americans, are to pay for this infrastructure. It was already passed in Congress or added to some bill or such that we found a few months ago.

How much closer ties to Mexico can the US get?
The politicians are already in bed together.

Are you kidding me? We need to severe ties with these band of cretins, not seek closer ties with them.

The ONLY ties I want to see are Plastic handcuff ties on the wrists of the Mexicans being send back.