Mexican Prosecutors Train in U.S. for Changes in Their Legal System

posted by:lizette avila

USTIN, Tex. — Luz María Hernández slumped in her chair and let out a sigh of relief after doing something she had never done before despite nearly two years as a prosecutor in Mexico. She delivered an opening statement.

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Erich Schlegel for The New York Times

Andres Torres Ortiz, a prosecutor in Chihuahua, was congratulated at an awards ceremony.

It wasn’t bad, either. Strong voice, facts marshaled effectively, but a little more emotion wouldn’t hurt, came the assessment — not from the judge or jury but a group of American state prosecutors coaching her and other Mexican prosecutors on the ins and outs of American-style trials.

Don’t ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to. Seize on the emotional details in the case for those opening or closing arguments. Formulate questions so the witness has little wiggle room beyond answering “yes” or “no.”

The advice, familiar to any fan of courtroom drama, was most welcome, the Mexican prosecutors said, though a little bewildering at times.

“This is totally new,” Ms. Hernández, a prosecutor from Oaxaca, said afterward. “I was a little nervous here. But the critiques allow us to know our mistakes in how we express ourselves and present ourselves, so it is very good for us.”

American prosecutors at a hotel here in early April handed her and two dozen fellow Mexican state prosecutors files on an old murder case and then ran them through lectures, practice sessions and videotaped critiques as part of a program to train the prosecutors for changes that are being made in their criminal justice system.

In what experts say is nothing short of a revolution, Mexico is gradually abandoning its centuries-old Napoleonic system of closed-door, written inquisitions — largely a legacy of Spanish colonial rule — that had long been criticized as rife with corruption, opaque decisions, abuse of defendants and red tape that bogged down cases for years.

Instead, for the first time, defendants will be presumed innocent until proved guilty, instead of the other way around, as they are now. The police will use more forensics and meticulous fact-gathering. Plea bargains, mediation and probation, never tried before in Mexico, will become standard.

And, in what many consider one of the biggest leaps, courtroom doors will be thrown open to the public for oral trials before a trio of judges where victims and the accused can confront one another and evidence will be laid out in the open.

In the four states that have adopted the changes — Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Nuevo León and Baja California — there have already been a handful of such trials.

Legal experts said the trials proceeded at a brisker clip, days instead of months, but advocacy groups for private lawyers have complained that training for them and investigators has been sparse and the courtrooms physically inadequate to accommodate such trials.

The effort to make the Mexican system more open and transparent is intended to bolster public confidence in criminal justice and root out the effects of organized crime, which many legal experts and others believe manipulates the system in its favor.

Advocates of the new system, which is intended to include all 31 Mexican states by 2016, contend that an efficient judiciary can play a role in tamping down lawlessness. Non-government groups have estimated that the vast majority of criminal cases in the country are unsolved.

In the past year, a wave of bloody drug cartel violence has killed more than 7,000 people. Cartel crimes tend to be investigated at the federal level, which will be phasing in the changes in the coming years.

The changes, long demanded by human rights groups, are similar to reforms in a dozen other Latin American countries.

“The system is in crisis,” said Carlos F. Natarén, a law professor at National Autonomous University in Mexico City. “It doesn’t leave any of the parties satisfied. There is no efficiency in combating crime, and it’s an area where we systemically find violation of rights.”

Guillermo Trejo, a prosecutor from Chihuahua who trained here last week, said he welcomed the public scrutiny.

“The public will be able to see who is competent and who isn’t as well as the evidence and testimony we deliver to the court,” Mr. Trejo said. “That was just not done in the old system.”

This session, with 27 Mexican lawyers from three states who were vetted by American federal law enforcement agencies, was organized by the Conference of Western Attorneys General and the National Association of Attorneys General, which together will be training several hundred prosecutors in the next few years.

It is part of $7 million the United States Agency for International Development, a branch of the State Department, has provided in the past year to support the change in Mexico’s court system. Several million more is planned in the next year.

The icy seminars of “Paper Chase,” the training here was not. Chocolate bars and trinkets were handed out to those who provided good answers.

For the Mexican prosecutors, mastering the art of cross examination posed the most trouble. “Very often we would not even see the defendant,” José Carlos González, a Chihuahua prosecutor, said of the old system.

And some of the Mexican prosecutors felt uncomfortable with injecting emotion into their statements, mindful that in their country three judges well-versed in the law, and not a jury of ordinary citizens, would be hearing their cases.

But Carlos Guzman, a prosecutor with the Florida attorney general’s office, said that emotion and story-telling could be persuasive, no matter the audience .

“Judges are human beings,” Mr. Guzman told a group of prosecutors in one session. “Whether a judge or not, they are going to react differently to how they hear the case.”

White man's burden? Discrimination suits flourish-Associated Press

posted by:Lizette Avila

AP Photo/WALT ZEBOSKI Advertisement Buy AP Photo Reprints Your Questions Answered Ask AP: Water-fueled cars, slain Somali pirates The issue of reverse discrimination first reached the nation's highest court in the 1970s, when a student with good grades named Allan Bakke accused a University of California medical school of twice denying him admission because he was white. Strict racial quotas were unconstitutional, the court said - affirmative action was not. But that ruling far from decided what many considered the big-picture issue: does protecting minorities discriminate against the majority? More than 30 years, and scores of lawsuits later, the question remains unanswered. Meanwhile, more Americans came to believe that affirmation action is no longer necessary, and that instead of leveling the playfield for minorities, it unfairly punishes whites. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case filed by white firefighters who claimed they were denied promotion because of the color of their skin. "The laws that Congress wrote are clear - everyone is protected from racial discrimination," said Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank that advocates eliminating race and ethnic considerations. "Not just blacks, but whites. Not just Latinos, but whites." Those who favor affirmative action say race divisions still exist in this country, 40 years after the civil rights movement. "Race so permeates society that you can't ignore it," said Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Racial Justice Project. Several states have recently faced legal battles waged by whites claiming they were unfairly treated in favor of protecting and promoting blacks and Hispanics. Earlier this month in South Carolina, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued a historically black college on behalf of three white faculty members who complained they were forced from or denied jobs because of their race. Simultaneously, federal officials said they had reached a settlement agreement, with Benedict College paying $55,000 to each instructor, including an art teacher who said she was denied promotion in favor of a black professor. The institution denied the accusations. Last week, a white woman in Texas filed a federal lawsuit against an assisted-living center, contending she was discriminated against and harassed by Hispanics because she didn't speak Spanish. And in Florida, two transportation companies sued Broward County over efforts to steer public contracts to minority-owned businesses. The firms, which had provided car service for the handicapped and the elderly, claimed they were paid lower fees than other contractors because they didn't comply with affirmative action requirements. Affirmative action - policies designed to promote and protect groups previously and currently denied equal standing - originated with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Broadly speaking, it outlaws bias toward race, creed, color or national origin in school admissions, voting rights, employment and government contracting. Sometimes those policies have set aside jobs, college admissions and government contracts for minority applicants, students and firms. "Quotas do not end discrimination. They are discrimination," Clegg said. "The law makes clear that race, ethnicity and sex are not to be part of who gets a government contract or who gets into a university or where someone goes to school." But there is wide disagreement on whether case law is clear at all. In the Bakke case, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that universities could take race and ethnicity into account when deciding student admissions. But using rigid racial quotas to increase minorities on campus was unconstitutional, justices said. In 1987, the high court said temporary and "narrowly tailored" quota systems were allowed. The case stemmed from an affirmative action plan that imposed a promotion standard of "one black for one white" in the Alabama state police ranks. The quota was justified, justices ruled, because of the department's "long and shameful record of delay and resistance" to black employment opportunities. Twenty years later, a more conservative court declared that public school systems cannot try to achieve or maintain integration based on explicit race rules. In a 5-to-4 opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." At issue in the case were programs in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., that tried to maintain racial diversity by limiting transfers and admissions. "The Supreme Court case law isn't clear. There aren't bright lines and clear guidance," said attorney Deborah Archer, director of the Racial Justice Project at New York Law School. "It's very difficult to extract a rule from those cases that can be applied across the board." Instead, "they have tended to be concerned with a specific aspect, and the decisions are made on case-by-case basis," said Archer, whose group filed a friend-of-the-court brief for the city of New Haven, Conn., the defendant in last week's Supreme Court hearing. In its first consideration of race under the presidency of Barack Obama, a divided court heard arguments from white firemen claiming the city discriminated against them by jettisoning the results of a promotion exam that no blacks had passed. The city contends it got rid of the test results because it was concerned that no African-American firefighters, and only two Hispanics, received passing scores. Officials said they worried the test was somehow flawed because it had such a disproportionate effect on minorities. Justice Anthony Kennedy, as is common on social issues, appeared to have the swing vote. He questioned why the city didn't weigh the test against a clear standard before deciding it was deficient and setting it aside. That is the key legal question - can the test and its results legally be thrown out after the fact? "Suppose an employer looked out the window and saw a line of Hispanics applying for jobs?" asked attorney Michael Rosman of the Center for Individual Rights, another group opposing affirmative action. "Suppose he told his secretary to cancel the interviews because he didn't like who was lined up outside? No one would argue that wasn't racial discrimination." Others say that scenario misses the point. "We like to believe there is an equal playing field. In fact, there isn't," said Parker of the ACLU. "In this country, whites are still advantaged in many ways. You can say we shouldn't take race into consideration, but that just continues the advantage." The deep divide over who needs help - and at what price - mirrors the equally deep racial divisions that still exist, Parker said. "Clearly there have been changes. We have a black president. But if I were to go into any office on Wall Street, I think it would be hard to deny that white people aren't getting jobs. You wouldn't see a lot of black people and women," he said. © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy

The “NAFTA Flu”: Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness

As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level. Several countries around the world have banned the import of US and Mexican pork products. We speak to professor and author Robert Wallace, who says the swine flu is partly the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to open their markets to poorly regulated Western agribusiness giants.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/the_nafta_flu

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U.S. State Department Issues Mexico Travel Alert

Anabel Arrazola


The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens of the health risks of travel to Mexico at this time due to an outbreak of H1N1 “swine flu.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an April 27 notice recommending that American citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico at this time.
CDC’s notice also suggests precautions that travelers and U.S. citizen residents in Mexico can take to reduce their risk of infection while in Mexico. CDC provides recommendations for those who must travel to an area that has reported cases of swine flu, and recommends measures to take following return from an area that has reported cases of swine flu. The complete CDC notice can be found at the following link: http://www.cdc.gov/travel/. Please check this site frequently for updates. This Travel Alert expires on July 27, 2009.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent experts to Mexico to work with health authorities.
On April 25, the Government of Mexico announced that as a precautionary measure, all schools from kindergarten through university level will remain closed until May 6 in the Federal District, State of Mexico, and San Luis Potosi. All government-sponsored events involving large crowds have also been canceled, and museums and most tourist attractions are closed.
Consular operations at all consular posts in Mexico will be affected by this flu outbreak. Please refer to Embassy Mexico’s web page and that of individual posts for the latest information on closings and service reductions.
The U.S. Embassy reminds U.S. citizens in Mexico that most cases of influenza are not “swine flu.” Any specific questions or concerns about flu or other illnesses should be directed to a medical professional. Mexico City medical authorities urge people to avoid hospitals and clinics unless they have a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection; instead, those with health concerns are encouraged to stay home and call their physicians to avoid potential exposure. Although the U.S. Embassy cannot give medical advice or provide medical services to the public, a list of hospitals and doctors can be found on our website at the following links: http://mexico.usembassy.gov/sacs_medical_info.html (Spanish)http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/eacs_medical_info.html (English)
For additional information, please consult the State Department’s website at www.travel.state.gov, the CDC website at www.cdc.gov, or the website of the World Health Organization at www.who.int. The U.S.-based call center for U.S. citizens can be reached from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time, M-F, at 1-888-407-4747, or if calling from outside the U.S., at (202)-501-4444. The U.S. Embassy will also post additional information as it becomes available at: www.usembassy-mexico.gov. American citizens traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department's travel registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov/.
For emergencies involving U.S. citizens in Mexico, please contact the closest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The U.S. Embassy is located in Mexico City at Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, telephone from the United States: 011-52-55-5080-2000; telephone within Mexico City: 5080-2000; telephone long distance within Mexico 01-55-5080-2000. You may also contact the Embassy by e-mail at: ccs@usembassy.net.mx. The Embassy's internet address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/.
By U.S. State Department

Clinton Scores Points by Admitting Past U.S. Errors

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — It has become a recurring theme of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s early travels as the chief diplomat of the United States: she says that American policy on a given issue has failed, and her foreign listeners fall all over themselves in gratitude.

On Friday, Mrs. Clinton said here that the uncompromising policy of the Bush administration toward Cuba had not worked. That, she said, is why President Obama decided earlier this week to lift restrictions on travel and financial transfers for United States residents with relatives in Cuba.

“We are continuing to look for productive ways forward, because we view the present policy as having failed,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference in this sun-dappled capital, hours before flying to join Mr. Obama at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

The contrition tour goes beyond Latin America. In China, Mrs. Clinton told audiences that the United States must accept its responsibility as a leading emitter of greenhouse gases. In Indonesia, she said the American-backed policy of sanctions against Myanmar had not been effective. And in the Middle East, she pointed out that ostracizing the Iranian government had not persuaded it to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Like other leaders around the world, Mrs. Clinton’s host, the president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, responded effusively on Friday, hailing the secretary and her boss, Mr. Obama, for their view on Cuban policy, which he said took “great courage” and could utterly transform the political landscape of Latin America.

“President Obama is paving a new road,” he said. “It is recognition of the fact that previous policies have failed. Fifty years of a policy that has not generated the originally sought purposes can be called a failure.”

In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s aides clarified, she was not condemning the half-century-old trade embargo against Cuba, which the Obama administration has not yet agreed to lift. Rather, her reference was to the strict travel and financial restrictions imposed by the Bush administration.

But it hardly seemed to matter. For a senior American official — someone who almost became president — to declare that the United States had erred, makes a major impact on foreign audiences.

Mrs. Clinton drew a similarly gratified response when she said in Mexico recently that the huge American appetite for drugs was fueling the booming narcotics trade in that country and elsewhere in the region.

She repeated that message in the Dominican Republic on Friday, telling a questioner at a town hall meeting here, “We acknowledge we have a responsibility, and we have to act in concert with you.”

Regret is a new role for Mrs. Clinton, but one that she has had plenty of opportunity to observe up close. On a single trip to Africa in 1998 her husband, former President Bill Clinton, apologized for American participation in slavery; American support of brutal African dictators; American “neglect and ignorance” of Africa; American failure to intervene sooner in the Rwandan genocide of 1994; American “complicity” in apartheid; and even for a failure that occurred far from Africa — America’s slow response to the bloodshed in Bosnia.

In most cases, Mrs. Clinton has been simply disavowing a policy of the Bush White House — something she did with zeal as a Democratic candidate. But the words carry much more weight overseas. And there is some evidence that these gestures are starting to register.

On Friday, Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, welcomed the administration’s easing of travel restrictions, saying he was open to dialogue with the United States on a full range of topics, including human rights and the release of political prisoners — something Mrs. Clinton had demanded a day earlier.

“We have seen Raúl Castro’s comments and we welcome this overture,” she said. “We are taking a very serious look at it, and we will consider how we intend to respond.”

Last week, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, softened his tone against the United States, suggesting that Iran would make a new offer to the West on its nuclear program.

There are holdouts, of course: North Korea has greeted the Obama administration by testing a missile, ratcheting up its language and threatening to pull out of multiparty talks on its nuclear program. Mrs. Clinton, in turn, has had few warm words for North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il.

But in many countries, her statements have elicited an almost palpable sense of relief. And she suggested that the Obama administration’s drive for warmer relations with old foes was just getting started.

Asked whether the United States would build bridges to hostile Latin American leaders, like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Mrs. Clinton said, “Let’s put ideology aside; that is so yesterday.”

-Isabel Tovar

Mexico stocks jump as America Movil leads

Mexican stocks jumped on Wednesday, led by shares in cell phone operator America Movil, which tracked gains in technology shares on Wall Street.
The IPC stock index .MXX rose 2.42 percent to 21,729, also supported by big gains in normally lightly traded companies including a breadmaker and two holding companies owned by billionaire telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.
Cell phone operator America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote, Profile, Research)(AMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which is also controlled by Slim and accounts for around a fifth of the benchmark index's weighting, rose 1.79 percent to 20.42 pesos.
"The market was really divided this morning on whether we were going up or down, this could be a short-squeeze," said one trader in Mexico City.
On Tuesday stocks slumped in late-session wave of selling that traders said was caused by a large bank squaring a derivatives position. The bank's trade weighed heaviest on the IPC's less liquid stocks, which snapped back on Wednesday.
Slim's holding companies Carso Telecom (TELECOMA1.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Grupo Carso (GCARSOA1.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) both rebounded by more than 6 percent, while breadmaker Bimbo (BIMBOA.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped back 3.68 percent to 62.02 pesos and appliance dealer Elektra (ELEKTRA.MX: Quote, Profile, Research) recovered 2.66 to 583.70 pesos.
The peso MEX01 firmed 0.19 percent to 13.165 per dollar, supported by the rebound in U.S. equities, which provoked more investor appetite for riskier emerging market assets.
The Mexican currency surged on Tuesday after the central bank held its first auction of credits funded by a swap line with the U.S. Federal Reserve, easing pressure on the exchange market for companies looking to cover short-term dollar debts. (Reporting by Michael O'Boyle, Editing by Walker Simon)



http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN2253758120090422

Obama to ignore campaign promise of reopening NAFTA

Talking about how Obama is going back on his campaign promise to look at labor/environmental regulations in NAFTA because too politically risky

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/business/21nafta.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1

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Obama calls for U.S., Mexico to jointly combat drug cartels

On his first visit to Mexico, he agrees with President Felipe Calderon to also cooperate on energy, the environment and immigration. Obama now moves on to the Latin American summit.

By Peter Nicholas and Tracy Wilkinson
3:16 PM PDT, April 16, 2009
Reporting from Mexico City -- President Obama, in his first official trip to Mexico, said he will push for U.S. ratification of a treaty designed to lessen the flow of weapons to drug cartels and announced that the countries will work together on a host of issues including the environment and energy.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Mexico President Felipe Calderon, Obama said the arms trafficking treaty was needed as part "of the battle against drug cartels that are robbing so many of a future."


The presidents also announced the formation of the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Framework on Clean Energy and Climate Change, a mechanism to stimulate political and technical cooperation between the countries. And they said they would work together on other issues, including immigration.

"On many of the other thorny topics of relations between U.S. and Mexico, we have had an open, frank and trusting conversation between President Obama and myself," Calderon said at the news conference.

Obama and Calderon met this afternoon after Obama arrived here on the first leg of his Latin America debut. Obama will spend less than 24 hours in Mexico before continuing Friday to Trinidad and Tobago for the fifth Summit of the Americas, a three-day meeting of the hemisphere's 34 elected heads of state and government. U.S.-Latin American relations are at their lowest point in years.

The Obama administration had already said it will increase enforcement of existing laws to try to stop the smuggling of weapons across the border. Today's announcement is a further step in the battle against the cartels.

The Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Items better known by its Spanish acronym, CIFTA, was adopted in 1997 and went to the U.S. Senate in 1998. The United States is one of four nations in the Western Hemisphere that have not ratified the convention, though the U.S. has sought to abide by the treaty's spirit.

President Obama arrived in an embattled Mexico, where he faced a test of his ability to bring fundamental change to one of Washington's most important relationships.

Obama stepped off of Air Force One at about 1:30 p.m. local time and was greeted by Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa. He was then taken by helicopter to confer with Calderon.

At the formal welcoming ceremony, Calderon called for a new era of understanding and cooperation.

"We are, we can and we should be friends, partners and allies," Calderon said. "Mr. President, let's start a new era of relations between the United States and Mexico, . . . new era in which we work together to make our border an example of productivity and security . . . a new era in which the fight against organized crime is waged completely as a shared responsibility, a battle waged by both Mexicans and Americans and won as allies."

Then adapting Obama's slogan from the presidential campaign, Mexico's president added in English: "Let's build a new era. Yes we can."

Obama was equally gracious thanking Calderon for the welcome.

"There's a reason why the first visit I had with a president was with President Calderon," Obama said. "We are joined by a border but our bonds are so much more than that."

Obama arrived at 2:09 p.m. for the formal welcoming ceremony in a park on the grounds of Los Pinos, Mexico's equivalent of the White House. A podium was set up at the foot of a large statue of Francisco I. Madero, who served as Mexican president in the early 20th century.

Children wearing school uniforms and holding small Mexican and American flags sat in risers on the park's perimeter, chattering excitedly before the ceremony. Young soldiers in navy blue dress uniforms and hats faced the main stage. American and Mexican flags hung from long poles that formed a semicircle at the edge of the park.

Security was tight. Armed soldiers took positions on streets near Los Pinos. Reporters traveling as part of the White House press pool were funneled through two different metal detectors before entering the park. Bags were examined both by security guards and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Obama praised Mexico and Calderon for efforts to fight the drug cartels.

"At a time when the Mexican government has so courageously taken on the drug cartels that have plagued both sides of the border, it is absolutely critical that the United States join as a full partner with this issue," Obama said.

Before Obama spoke, however, the Mexican military announced that 15 gunmen and one soldier were killed in a shootout in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located. Officials said the soldiers came under fire from a convoy of gunmen Wednesday while patrolling a drug-trafficking area.

Like much of the rest of Latin America, the Mexico that receives a visit from Obama today yearns for the kind of new partnership that the president espouses.

The United States plans to help Calderon, who with his cabinet Obama said at the news conference has done "an outstanding and heroic job" in taking on the country's violent drug cartels.

Obama said the issue was more than drugs, but included efforts to curb cash and guns going south.

Powerful drug-trafficking organizations have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed more than 10,000 lives in just over two years and could threaten Calderon's ability to govern. Calderon has repeatedly called on Washington to do more to stop the flow of weapons and drug money from the U.S. and to curb the demand for the tons of cocaine and marijuana that Mexican traffickers send north.

Obama is expected to use the same moves that he did during his successful European visit earlier this month. He vowed to listen and acknowledged past American shortcomings as he called for a focus on the future.

"Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors," Obama wrote in an op-ed published today in newspapers in Florida and across Latin America. "We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas."

Obama continued: "My administration is committed to the promise of a new day. We will renew and sustain a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security."

Thus far, the Obama administration has promised to put more law enforcement agents along the border, step up southbound inspections, accelerate release of portions of the $1.4 billion in aid allotted under the so-called Merida Initiative and reexamine domestic drug-use policies.

Calderon's offensive against the drug gangs has consisted primarily of deploying 45,000 army troops to the most violent areas of his nation, including traditional drug-producing centers such as the state of Sinaloa, and border cities such as Tijuana.

Separately, and less successfully, he is attempting to reform major institutions by purging and retraining corrupt police forces, changing the way trials are conducted and pushing legislation to make it possible to investigate money laundering. It is in these latter "institution-building" measures that U.S. aid is especially critical, Mexican officials say.

While Obama is expected to focus on the drug war, Mexicans have other issues they want to raise.

On immigration, Mexico favors an expanded temporary-workers program that would allow Mexicans to travel back and forth over the border legally and expeditiously. About half of the 12 million illegal immigrants said to be living in the U.S. are Mexican, and regularizing their status is a priority for Calderon's government.

Obama has pledged to tackle comprehensive immigration reform, but it's a politically sensitive topic in the U.S., where there is no consensus. The issue is particularly sensitive during times of economic downturn.

The economies of the two countries are closely interconnected, and the crisis in the U.S. is felt acutely here. Remittances and exports of manufactured goods and oil -- Mexico's principal income providers -- are all declining. Another point of contention is a dispute over Mexican long-haul trucks, which under the North American Free Trade Agreement are supposed to be allowed to transport cargo in the U.S. The Obama administration suspended the program; Mexico retaliated by slapping tariffs on $2 billion worth of fruit, electronics and other U.S. exports destined for Mexico.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the issues that Obama will raise in Mexico are the same ones he will discuss at the summit.

"First and foremost is the economy, the global economic crisis, and what should be done to help it," he said. "In both Mexico and at the summit, energy and climate change will be important conversations that are had. And undoubtedly in both we'll talk about safety and security, first and foremost here in Mexico with the initiative that Congress and the administration -- both administrations, the previous administration and our administration, have undertaken."

One country that won't be at the summit is Cuba. While holding on to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba as leverage for promoting greater political freedom in the neighboring island nation, Obama is easing travel restrictions and financial rules for Cuban-Americans who want to visit their relatives, help them financially or communicate via cellphone.

To go further, he said he is looking for "some signal" of changes in Cuba's handling of political prisoners, travel by Cubans, religious liberties and free-speech rights.

"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes," he said.

On Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the U.S. and an ally of Cuba who has called Obama's predecessor "the devil," Obama said: "Look, he's the leader of his country and he'll be one of many people that I will have an opportunity to meet."

On the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: "Some of the practices of enhanced interrogation techniques, I think, ran counter to American values and American traditions. . . . I'm a strong believer that it is important to look forward and not backward and to remind ourselves that we do have very real security threats out there."

On the image of the U.S. in the region: It's had its "ups and downs," he said, but, "there's a reason why there are consistently so many immigrants to our country from Latin America." The U.S., he says, still is the land of "hope."

Isabel Tovar

more about guns entering mexico

second amendment prohibiting clamping down on the flow of guns to mexico because legal to buy continuously and no effective tracing by the government

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/us/15guns.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

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Clinton Admits US Drug War Failure

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/26/headlines#3

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has admitted US drug policy has not only been a failure but has in fact fueled Mexico’s drug war. Speaking to reporters at the outset of her trip to Mexico, Clinton said, “Clearly what we’ve been doing has not worked…I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility. Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians.” Clinton’s comments are being called the most far-reaching by a senior US official in accepting responsibility for the rampant drug trade.

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Biden listens to top Central American leaders-Lizette Avila

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden on Monday told Central American leaders pushing the United States to slow its record pace of deportations to be patient since it will not change in the short-term amid the U.S. economic downturn.

Biden's one-day visit is the first to Central America by a top-level U.S. official since President Barack Obama took office in January, and he promised to work together with leaders to strengthen ties with a region that has felt ignored by Washington.

"We are not putting together a policy for the hemisphere," Biden said. "We are putting together a policy with the hemisphere."

Central American leaders, who met with Biden at the Presidential Palace in Costa Rica, pushed for a slowing of deportations. A record 80,000 Central Americans were deported from the United States in 2008.

After the meeting, Biden told reporters that leaders must have patience while Washington devises a plan that will address the issue amid the U.S. economic downturn.

"There will not be an immediate response to deportations," said Biden, who arrived here late Sunday and left Monday afternoon after spending three days in Chile.

The deportations and U.S. economic downturn have hit the region hard. During the last quarter of 2008, money sent home by Central American migrants living in the U.S. fell 4 percent, compared to the same period the previous year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

Remittances are a major source of foreign revenue for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Before the crisis, the amount of money sent to these countries was growing steadily every year.
During a visit to Central America last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Tom Shannon said Biden will work toward securing loans for Central American social projects from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

Biden said Monday the problem can only be solved in the context of an overall immigration reform, adding that there has to be a pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants in the country. He did not give details on when or how such a reform would come about.

The leaders also discussed the drug war, strengthening financial institutions to boost their ailing economies, and environmental problems. Mexican drug cartels have been increasingly moving into the region and spurring violence.

Biden said that anti-drug aid for Central America under the Merida Initiative will be increased to $100 million in 2009 from $65 million in 2008.

"We hope to keep it there in the coming years," Biden said.

Central American leaders have complained that they were ignored by the administration of George W. Bush. Biden made clear that the Obama administration intends to change that. He also emphasized that Washington wants to work with the region.

"I hope they are convinced of the sincerity of my government to change the dynamic," he said.

Biden is using his trip through Latin America as an opportunity to reach out in the run up to Obama's visit to the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The most recent in a series of left-leaning leaders elected in Latin America, Salvadoran President-elect Mauricio Funes said he hoped to strengthen his nation's strategic alliance with the U.S.

Funes, who takes office on June 1, said he would not fall under the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and urged the socialist leader not to meddle in El Salvador's affairs."Because my party has close ties to Chavez, that does not mean my foreign policy will be subordinated to Chavez," he said.

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Mexico's Drug War Fallout http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez6-2009apr06,0,3344884.column

This column addresses the the impact of the Mexican drug war on Mexican immigrants in the U.S. Media coverage about the violence in Mexico has become more common and according to the columnist this can lead to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiments within the U.S. while also making immigrants' stay in the U.S. a more permanent option. 

ANALYSIS-Mexico drug war, economy hobble Calderon's ambitions

MEXICO CITY, April 6 (Reuters) - Wrestling murderous drug gangs with one hand and fending off a recession with the other, Mexico's Felipe Calderon faces a defeat in mid-term elections that could hobble the rest of his presidency.Since he took power in late 2006 and launched a war on drug cartels, drug killings have rocketed -- sparking alarm in the United States that they could spill over the border -- and the global financial crisis is now whipping the Mexican economy.Although Calderon is admired for having the courage to take on the cartels, he doesn't yet have much to show for it and his approval ratings, which for long held above 60 percent, dipped to the mid-50s in a recent poll.His conservative National Action Party, or PAN, is ranked in second place for the July legislative elections behind the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico with a firm hand for 71 years until 2000.If the PAN loses many seats in Congress, where it is the biggest party but lacks a majority, Calderon will have much less chance of pushing through more of the deft economic reforms that pleased investors early on in his six-year term."The combination of the drug war and the economic crisis have battered Calderon. People are very dispirited," said Dan Lund, head of research firm MUND Americas.About 6,300 people were murdered in the drugs war last year and the economy will likely shrink by at least 3 percent this year. The peso currency has slumped and Mexico was forced to sign up for a $47 billion IMF credit line last week.The drugs war and economic crisis are also starting to feed off each other. By rattling investors and tourists, the drug violence shaves about 1 percent annual growth off the already sputtering economy, and rising unemployment could nudge more youths to join the drug cartels, government officials say.Lower growth could leave Mexico with less cash to spend on the drug war, which cost $6.4 billion over 2007 and 2008."Frankly, I never imagined we could reach this level of disintegration, that the breakdown would be so fast," said Alejandro Gutierrez, author of a 2007 book called "Drug Trafficking: Calderon's Big Challenge"."Year three tends to be the one you are judged by. We are nearly there and Calderon has a lot of fronts open in the drug war. I don't think he can do much in a year or two."Calderon, an adroit former lawyer, ran an unexciting election campaign but then pleased investors by steering tax, pension and oil reforms through a divided Congress in under two years. He has also impressed security analysts with moves to clean up Mexico's rabidly corrupt police and justice systems.His drug war offensive has put thousands of smugglers behind bars and exposed brazen corruption running to the top of federal security forces.But the top traffickers have not been caught and even the deployment of tens of thousands of army troops has failed to stop the flow of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin north across the border into the United States."ORANGE ALERT"The U.S. military recently riled Mexico by including it in a report on "weak and failing states"."Calderon didn't have a lot of choice, he had to confront this phenomenon, but the drug war is damaging for him and for the country," said private security consultant Alberto Islas."Last year saw bombs, grenades, an attack on a TV station, more than 6,000 dead people. Mexico is not a failed state but we're on 'orange alert'. People want more stability and they're going to vote for other parties."Despite international concern over the drug war, most Mexicans cite the economy as more of a concern than security.Mexico has bounced back from its mid-1990s "Tequila Crisis" with steady growth, low inflation, and a restructuring of its debt but the global downturn has slashed U.S. demand for Mexican-built cars and factory goods, kept oil prices low and hit migrant remittances.While the central bank has burned through chunks of dollar reserves to shore up the peso, Calderon has been busy coordinating a ground war between 45,000 troops and ruthless cartel hitmen armed with smuggled American guns.Images of bloodied corpses, severed heads and bodies strung from bridges or dissolved in acid baths have shocked the world. U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Calderon in Mexico this month after visits by a string of concerned U.S. officials.Mexico insists it has the situation under control. Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora says the pace of killings is slowing and there is no need for the United States to send troops to protect its southern border.But a likely loss of seats in Congress and bickering between the PAN and the centrist PRI, whose backing it needs to pass laws, means Calderon may struggle to pursue his reforms."Following mid-terms he could conceivably become a lame duck president," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."The drug wars don't really have an end-date," he said. "Mexico is at a critical juncture in consolidating itself as a democracy. The transformation could take three or four presidencies, it's not something a president can undertake and complete in one term." (Editing by Kieran Murray)