Mind Your Own Business

Friction evident as Mexican president visits US

The human and financial costs of Mexico's drug war, diplomatic cable leaks, the influx of U.S. arms and a wave of anti-immigration initiatives in the United States are all taking a toll on Mexico-U.S. relations...

As President Felipe Calderon prepares for an official visit to Washington on Thursday to meet with President Barack Obama, frustrations have come out into the open and the rhetoric in some ways has regressed to the 1980s, when the two governments routinely traded barbs about drugs, money laundering, trade and investment issues.

The visit comes a little more than two weeks after the killing of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata...

The killing brought back U.S. doubts about Mexico's ability to control violence, at the same time Mexico is beginning to chafe under what it sees as a lack of U.S. willingness to reduce its demand for drugs or stem the flow south of guns that fuel a conflict that has cost more than 34,600 lives here since Calderon took office in 2006.

Hold it right there por un momento, señor.

I'll grant that the U.S. drug policy is screwed up and out of touch with reality. But blaming the U.S. demand for Mexico's inability to control violence, corruption, and class inequities is not justified. Mexico has always been a country where the haves and the have-nots have been at war. That has contributed to the ongoing cycle of violence, corruption, and oppression that has been endemic throughout Mexican history - long before any U.S. demand for drugs.

"As far as reducing the demand for drugs, they haven't done so. ... As far as reducing the flow of arms, they haven't, it has increased," Calderon said in unusually harsh comments the week before the visit...

One again, alto. If Mexico can't control it's border well enough to slow down or halt the alleged flow of arms, that's on them, not on us. The last time I looked, automatic weapons and things like RPGs, which the cartels seem to have plenty of, are illegal in the U.S. If the cartels are getting a supply of those types of weapons, it's not from north of the border.

Calderon "has not gotten a response beyond rhetoric on the gun issue ... and I think he is bothered by the prospect that special-interest groups in the United States have more influence than Mexico's entire leadership," said Raymundo Riva Palacio, a veteran columnist and political observer in Mexico City.

Damn straight. American special interest groups should have more influence than Mexico's leadership. This is, after all, America - not Mexico. Get your house in order and then maybe someone over here will pay attention to you.

According to Mexican officials, the Calderon-Obama meeting was planned before the Zapata killing, and will focus on economic issues, anti-crime cooperation, and conditions for the estimated 12 million Mexican migrants living in the United States.

But Calderon's most important meeting may be with the new U.S. House Speaker, Republican John Boehner, according to Pamela Starr, professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. It may be Mexico's best opportunity to defend the next phase of the $1.4 billion U.S. Merida Initiative anti-drug aid plan.

Oh yes - it always comes back to money. But Calderon's approach is somewhat unusual, to say the least. If he's going to come over here hat in hand, seeking his $1.4B handout, he shouldn't be complaining about U.S. internal politics and policies. Beggars can't be choosers.

Contributing to the friction was the release of leaked cables written by U.S. Embassy personnel depicting Mexico's armed forces and police agencies as inefficient, corrupt, riven by infighting and "reliant on the United States for leads and operations."

The truth hurts, doesn' it.

In truth, I do have a lot of empathy for Calderon. He's in a tough situation, much of which he inherited. And I can understand his frustration in trying to clean up in a few short years a mess that's been several generations in the making. But the way to succeed is not by insulting the closet foreign ally he has.

But while the United States wonders if Mexico can control violence and bring criminals to justice, Mexico has just been left wondering whether that opening is reciprocal.

Mexico continues to wait for the opening of U.S. highways to Mexican trucks, something it is entitled to under NAFTA. The U.S. Congress has simply blocked that program under pressure from industry groups with arguments about highway safety.

From a legal/theoretical perspective, Mexico may have a good point here. There's not much doubt that the U.S. has been dragging its feet in complying with the trucking provisions of NAFTA. But I would argue that the highway safety argument is valid. I drive back and forth between the border and Central Texas on a weekly basis. One of the things that stands out is that semis with U.S. plates are lined up nice and polite in the right hand lane, adhering very closely to the speed limit. The reason for this is that most of the trucking companies have GPS transponders installed on their trucks. Among the data that is collected and transmitted is their speed. If they exceed the limit their insurance rates go up, and the driver is punished. This is great news for those of us who drive passenger vehicles. On the other hand, the vast majority of trucks I've seen speeding and driving recklessly have Mexican plates. (Mexican trucks can freely operate within a 25-mile zone inside the border. I feel much safer when I reach mile marker 26.)

And Mexicans have been angered at tough measures to crack down on illegal immigration in several U.S. states. They are especially alarmed about proposals that aim to deny citizenship to children of undocumented migrants born in the United States.

Boo-hoo. Tough fucking shit. What part of "illegal immigration" do they think exempts them from punishment? And why in God's name do they think their kids are entitled to U.S. citizenship just because the mother committed a criminal act by sneaking in to this country right before popping the kid out?

Bottom line - get your own house in order first. Even then, there are aspects of U.S. internal politics that are none of your business. So keep your nose where it belongs - south of the border, down Mexico way...