Why Obama won't talk so much about drug war on Mexico trip
Presidents Obama and Enrique Pe帽a Nieto have reasons to change the US-Mexico narrative in meetings Thursday, but 'both countries are still very interested' in the drug war.
In this April 30 file photo, President Barack Obama answers questions during his news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP/File
Washington
President Obama travels to Mexico Thursday with a bilateral agenda that no longer screams 鈥渄rug war鈥 as its No. 1 item.
But if narcotrafficking and security issues seem to have given way to trade, Western Hemisphere energy development, and regional prosperity on the list of items Mr. Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pe帽a Nieto, will discuss Thursday, that doesn鈥檛 mean the drug war is a thing of the past, experts say.
It just means the two countries agree it鈥檚 time to talk about drugs and drug trade-related violence less.
Instead, experts add, the lower profile the two leaders give to drug trafficking and Mexico鈥檚 related violence reflects Mr. Pe帽a Nieto鈥檚 effort to downplay his nation鈥檚 battle with drug cartels in favor of his reform agenda 鈥 and Obama鈥檚 own desires to change the narrative of the bilateral relationship.
鈥淧e帽a Nieto has been putting the emphasis on economic issues and his reforms, and not so much on narcotrafficking, levels of violence, and the security agenda,鈥 says Jorge Chabat, an expert in US-Mexico security issues at CIDE, a social sciences research and teaching institution in Mexico City.
鈥淭丑别 US is still very interested in Mexican stability, but basically Obama has decided that not talking about the violence and talking more about economic progress will help legitimize Pe帽a Nieto, and will help Mexican stability,鈥 Mr. Chabat says. 鈥淏oth countries are still very interested in what continues to be a very big problem,鈥 he adds, 鈥渢hey鈥檝e just agreed to talk about it less.鈥
In discussing Obama鈥檚 trip, White House officials concur that the president sees his three days of travel to Mexico and Costa Rica as an opportunity to shift the focus of the US-Mexico 鈥 and indeed the US-Americas 鈥 relationships beyond security and drug-trade issues.
鈥淲e very much want to broaden the focus of the relationship beyond security to encompass the economic potential,鈥 says Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. Noting Mexico鈥檚 鈥渢remendous economic growth in recent years,鈥 he says both presidents want to put their emphasis on enhancing that growth 鈥渢o create jobs and economic opportunity on both sides of the border.鈥
One reason Obama is making this trip now, Mr. Rhodes says, is that the president saw the moment 鈥 Obama beginning a second term, Pe帽a Nieto having just taken office in December 鈥 as an opportunity to recast and deepen US relations with Mexico and other southern neighbors.
Pe帽a Nieto replaced President Felipe Calderon, who launched a ferocious fight with Mexico鈥檚 powerful drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006. Mr. Calderon鈥檚 war challenged the cartels and netted some top traffickers 鈥 but at the cost of tremendous violence that resulted in more than 70,000 deaths.
Pe帽a Nieto came into office pledging to reduce the violence, and to put more emphasis on reforms to improve Mexico鈥檚 judicial system, reduce legendary police corruption, and streamline the anti-drug trafficking fight through better coordination among the country鈥檚 various security forces.
Some of the announced changes have caused ripples of concern north of the border 鈥 Pe帽a Nieto has decided that all cooperation with US law enforcement agencies should be channeled through Mexico鈥檚 Interior Ministry, which is responsible for all internal security issues. 聽
Some Drug Enforcement Agency officials have said privately they worry that order could disrupt their work with their Mexican counterparts. But Obama says that, while he wants to hear from Pe帽a Nieto what he intends from such changes, his initial understanding is that the Mexican leader is primarily aiming for better coordinated and more efficient domestic security efforts.
鈥淪ome of the issues that he鈥檚 talking about really had to do with refinements and improvements in terms of how Mexican authorities work with each other, how they coordinate more effectively, and it has less to do with how they鈥檙e dealing with us,鈥 Obama said at a press conference Tuesday.
The new Mexican leader鈥檚 鈥渟treamlining鈥 of law enforcement efforts has a lot to do with domestic considerations and very little to do with cooperation with the US, CIDE鈥檚 Chabat says. Already under President Calderon US-Mexico counternarcotics cooperation had shifted from the provision of antitrafficking vehicles and related supplies to 鈥渋nstitution-building,鈥 he says.
What is different, Chabat adds, is that for political reasons Pe帽a Nieto will be less public than his two predecessors about US-Mexico security cooperation.
鈥淐alderon and [Vicente] Fox,鈥 the last two presidents who hailed from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), 鈥渨ere very open about cooperation with US security agencies,鈥 he says. But Pe帽a Nieto faces different political pressures, he says.
Pe帽a Nieto 鈥渨ill continue cooperation with the US in a very important way,鈥 Chabat says. But he notes that the new president hails from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for 70 years (until 2000) with a veneer of proud independence from American influence. As a result, he says, Pe帽a Nieto 鈥渨ill think it鈥檚 important to maintain some rhetorical distance from the US to protect himself from the ultra-nationalists.鈥
Mexican authorities have started to trumpet what they say is a drop-off in violence and drug-war deaths since Pe帽a Nieto took office. But some Mexican human rights groups and outside organizations like the Washington Office on Latin America say that the reduction in violence is exaggerated and limited to a few states, and that rights abuses continue at high levels.
Chabat says no one expects Mexico鈥檚 high levels of violence to fall off rapidly, or for the new government to abandon the war on drugs. And in that context of continuity, he says it鈥檚 understandable that Obama and Pe帽a Nieto would look to change the narrative of US-Mexico relations to something more positive.
Citing such 鈥減ositives鈥 as Mexico鈥檚 recent impressive economic growth and a decade of poverty reduction across much of Latin America, some experts say Obama is broadening the spectrum of US interests in its southern neighbors at the right time.
Expanding the US agenda 鈥渙ffers the administration an opportunity to put together different elements that could make this relationship new, contemporary, and make people excited about the US and the region in a way that hasn鈥檛 been done in the past,鈥 says Carl Meacham, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Referring to Mexico as 鈥渢he current darling of international economists,鈥 Chabat says it makes sense for Obama to focus on the positive, even if the drug war is not about to go away.