Thread: MX: Napolitano feels heat in Mexico

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... o0210.html

Napolitano feels heat in Mexico
Arizona's leader grilled on migrant slayings, other violent episodes along border recently

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Feb. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - The shooting deaths of three migrants in Arizona cast a pall over Gov. Janet Napolitano's trip to Mexico City on Friday, as the Mexican government demanded an "exhaustive investigation" and Mexican citizens worried about a recent string of attacks at the border.

News of Thursday's attack near Tucson appeared on the front page of every major newspaper in the Mexican capital, and Napolitano was peppered with questions about the clash at a news conference after her first meeting with President Felipe Calderón.

"The practice is, and I'm sure it will be followed in this case, is to fully investigate," Napolitano told about 40 Mexican and foreign journalists.
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Napolitano's two-day trip had been aimed at downplaying border friction and pushing trade, and several Arizona business leaders were brought along to emphasize that.

But the shooting brought border problems back into the spotlight.

Four gunmen opened fire on a pickup truck carrying undocumented immigrants on Thursday in the Ironwood Forest National Monument, killing two men and a 15-year-old girl. A Guatemalan woman and a Mexican man were wounded. Authorities did not know if the attackers were Americans or Mexicans.

During her news conference, Napolitano noted her history as a federal and state prosecutor and promised Mexicans there would be no impunity for those who attack migrants.

The shooting followed a mass robbery of migrants Wednesday night near Sasabe, a Jan. 27 confrontation between immigrants and gunmen wearing berets near Eloy, and the Jan. 12 shooting of a migrant by a Border Patrol agent.

Napolitano had tried to emphasize positive parts of the Arizona-Mexico relationship during her trip.

But on Friday, border strife came roaring back into the headlines.

"Arizona: Three migrants killed," the Gráfico newspaper announced in letters an inch high. "ILLEGALS EXECUTED" blared the Excelsior newspaper over a picture of detectives at the crime scene.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry issued a written statement urging Arizona authorities to conduct "an exhaustive investigation in regard to the incident."

The statement was issued just before Napolitano arrived for a meeting with Patricia Espinosa, the foreign minister.

Robberies and violent clashes are nothing new along the Arizona-Mexico border. But as the United States ratchets up security, Mexicans have become especially sensitive about attacks on their countrymen. That's especially true in the media-saturated capital, where politicians are under pressure to defend Mexico's national pride.

"I am profoundly indignant with the violence we are seeing on the U.S. side," said Sen. Heladio Ramírez López. "The governor has got to take action."

The border problems also came up during the 30-minute meeting between Calderón, Napolitano and Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours.

"The president expressed to the governor of Arizona his worry about the anti-immigrant sentiments that are being shown ever more openly in that state," Calderón's office said in a statement after the meeting.

Napolitano also met with the head of Aeromexico, the Mexican airline that recently began daily non-stop service between Mexico City and Phoenix. Tourism officials are hoping the airline will help bring affluent chilangos, as Mexico City residents are known, to golf and shop in Arizona.

During meetings with other Cabinet members, Napolitano urged the Mexican government to sink money into road and infrastructure in northern Sonora to ease the flow of goods.

She also discussed a proposal that would allow U.S. inspectors to check produce exports in Mexico, speeding their transit over the border.

Several of the business and community leaders who accompanied Napolitano met Friday with Carlos Slim, a Mexico City businessman who is the world's third-richest person.

Slim discussed cross-border trade and showed his visitors some of his vast art collection, delegation members said.

Why or why do the people of Az keep electing this pro-amnesty governor. None of the people I know in Az voted for her yet she keeps getting elected. something stinks in Az.

This is just the start of violence......I have a bad feeling there will be more.

That's especially true in the media-saturated capital, where politicians are under pressure to defend Mexico's national pride.

How about OUR national pride?

"I am profoundly indignant with the violence we are seeing on the U.S. side," said Sen. Heladio Ramírez López. "The governor has got to take action."

He is kidding right?????????? Mr Lopez must be smoking some of that fine Mexican weed, because he is loco. I hope Janet Napolitano punched him in the head after he said that, because he deserved it...and we can show him what violence means.

"I am profoundly indignant with the violence we are seeing on the U.S. side," said Sen. Heladio Ramírez López. "The governor has got to take action."

Definitely a case of the kettle calling the pot black! Well, at least they're concerned about the deaths of their citizens, wish our government felt the same way about the thousands of American citizens that are being killed by Mexican nationals! What makes matters worse is the fact that the Americans are being killed in their own homeland.

To heck with the heat the Governor of Arizona is feeling in Mexico - she should be feeling a lot more in Arizona!

Originally Posted by MW

"I am profoundly indignant with the violence we are seeing on the U.S. side," said Sen. Heladio Ramírez López. "The governor has got to take action."

Definitely a case of the kettle calling the pot black! Well, at least they're concerned about the deaths of their citizens, wish our government felt the same way about the thousands of American citizens that are being killed by Mexican nationals! What makes matters worse is the fact that the Americans are being killed in their own homeland.

To heck with the heat the Governor of Arizona is feeling in Mexico - she should be feeling a lot more in Arizona!

Concerend? About their pocketbooks, maybe. Nothing says love, like handing a seven year old a brochure on how to get to America without killing yourself. And don't forget to write...I was hoping Calderon was better than Fox but I think that is too much to ask for.

"I am profoundly indignant with the violence we are seeing on the U.S. side," said Sen. Heladio Ramírez López. "The governor has got to take action."

If the Mexican leaders really cared about their national citizens, they would install their own border security to prevent migrants from crossing illegally. But no! They enjoy seeing their impoverished men, women and children risk death by crossing the desert, sneak into the U.S. in dashboards, crawl through sewers and tunnels, and violate our entry laws because it gives them drama for their soap operas and reasons to continue blaming the United States for their own incompetency.

SENATOR HELADIO RAMIREZ LOPEZ AND PRESIDENT CALDERON: YOU ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD TAKE ACTION! PUT UP YOUR OWN SECURITY AT THE BORDER SO THE TWO COUNTRIES HAVE A CHANCE TO LEGALLY REGULATE THE FLOW OF IMMIGRANTS! QUIT ATTACKING OUR STATE GOVERNORS WHO HAVE TO PAY FOR THESE WRETCHED PEOPLE.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stor ... 6b57c.html

Napolitano optimistic about border relations with Mexico

01:49 PM Mountain Standard Time on Saturday, February 10, 2007

By 3TV Staff

Gov. Janet Napolitano is wrapping up her two-day business trip to Mexico Saturday.


She met with newly-elected president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, and governor of Sonora, Eduardo Bours Friday.


The leaders from Mexico are reportedly committed to address a number of complicated issues including border security and immigration reform.


Napolitano is optimistic about the way this trip has turned out.


"It's all about jobs, trade and relationships and having a border that is secure but a border that actually works," she said.


Next month, President Bush travels south to meet with Mexico's top officials to discuss border relations.

This is all I'm posting on this meeting.

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http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/article ... /news1.txt

Immigration, commerce topics in Mexico

By Jonathan Clark/Wick Communications
MEXICO CITY - Gov. Janet Napolitano met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Friday for talks that focused on cross-border commerce and the need for a bilateral solution to the illegal immigration problem.

"While we need comprehensive immigration reform in the United States, we also need to recognize that (if) there are jobs and economic opportunities right here in Mexico, that, in and of itself, will help with illegal immigration," Napolitano said.

Speaking with reporters after a meeting that included the governor of Sonora, Eduardo Bours, as well as a delegation of Arizona business and civic leaders, Napolitano said she believed she was the first U.S. governor to meet with Calderon since he was inaugurated Dec. 1.

"I wanted to be first out of the box because we have a lot of issues," she said, adding Calderon had demonstrated "a deep appreciation" of many of the topics brought up during their talk.

The governor said she and Bours pushed for highway development in Sonora and a program to inspect and seal agricultural shipments to the U.S. in the Mexican interior - projects that could spur more cross-border trade between Mexico and Arizona.

But on a day when the fatal shooting of three illegal immigrants near Tucson on Thursday captured headlines here, the burning issue with the Mexican press was immigration.

Napolitano told a room packed with reporters that the shooting, in which at least one Mexican was injured, would be thoroughly investigated. But she said that until the U.S. Congress passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill and Mexico created better job opportunities for its citizens, border deaths would continue.

Incidents such as Thursday's, she said, "serve as a sign to all of us that there is an urgency here that needs to be respected by both countries."

Even so, she said, people on both sides of the border should not define Arizona's relationship with Mexico by individual incidents - or even by the single issue of illegal immigration.

"Immigration is and remains a very important issue, and border security is and remains an incredibly important issue for us," Napolitano said. However, she added, other important issues such as cross-border trade, tourism, environmental cooperation and academic exchanges, "have gotten underplayed with respect to the ongoing vitality of the relationship between Arizona and Mexico."

Calderon did not appear at the post-meeting press conference with Napolitano, but his office issued a statement saying the president had voiced his concern "for the anti-immigrant expressions that, each time more openly, are being played out in that state."

Calderon emphasized to Napolitano that this "adverse climate" in Arizona was doing nothing to promote cooperation between the two countries along the border, the statement said.

Bours told reporters that his state of Sonora, which already has one of the healthiest economies in Mexico, could serve as a bulwark against illegal immigration if even more jobs are created there.

Sonoran cities are already booming with migrants from southern Mexico and Central America who found work before crossing illegally into the U.S., Bours said. But he added that migration has also caused problems for his state, just as it has for Arizona.

As an example, Bours said that 18,000 children had been repatriated to Sonora by U.S. authorities in 2006 after they were caught crossing the border without their parents. The state spends a great deal of resources to shelter those children and reunite them with their families, he said.

"We are pleased to help our countrymen and brothers," he said, "but it's a cost that the people of Sonora have to bear."

Bours said he supported Calderon's recent decision to send the Mexican Army into drug-trafficking hot spots such as Michoacan and Guerrero states, but he said that such a measure was not necessary for Sonora.

While drug-related violence has increased in other areas, Bours said, homicides in Sonora had dropped 14 percent between 2005 and 2006.

"Our situation is very far from what's happening in other areas," he said.

Asked about U.S. immigration policy, Bours said U.S. law was a question for Americans to decide, not him. But he said that in his opinion, an expanded border wall would merely be a "distraction" from the real issues causing illegal immigration.

"A wall is not the solution, but if the Americans want to waste their money building a wall, it's their money," he said.