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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
U.S. Wants Closer Ties with Mexico
 Wire services - El Universal
| | Texas independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman speaks to students at the University of Texas in Austin. Friedman drew some applause from students with his pro-choice stand on abortion and his call to decriminalize marijuana. But the response was lukewarm to some of his proposals, like more intense guarding of the Texas-Mexico border. (AP/Harry Cabluck) |
Mexico´s controversial presidential election has made the United States focus more closely on the country, with U.S. officials planning to recommend policies to President-elect Felipe Calderón 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 as a way to discourage illegal immigration, and strengthening the rule of law, said U.S. officials involved in formulating the recommendations.
The U.S. must provide enough support to ensure that Calderón successfully tackles deep poverty, which was a central theme in the campaign of his defeated rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and which resonates among Mexicans, the officials said in separate interviews.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
"If Calderón doesn´t address the social development, the poverty and the inequality issues that López 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.
Speaking recently at Southern Methodist University, James Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, credited López Obrador with making poverty a focus of the campaign and said Calderón 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 (Calderón´s) priorities, if not his top priority," Jones said during a panel discussion of the World Affairs Council of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Calderón, of current President Vicente Fox´s National Action Party (PAN), was named president-elect by the Federal Electoral Tribunal two months after the July 2 election. He narrowly defeated López Obrador, who contested the result, claiming widespread fraud.
López Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), has said he´ll never recognize Calderón´s presidency and vowed to set up a parallel government.
Since being named president-elect, Calderón has identified three priorities for his administration: creating jobs, shoring up public security and improving the lives of poor people.
Some U.S. policymakers were concerned that a victory by López Obrador might have further complicated U.S. relations with Latin America, where recent elections brought leftist governments in Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, with Cuba already in place.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba have either difficult or nonexistent relations with the U.S.
One U.S. official acknowledged that Washington greeted Calderón´s win with a "big sense of relief" and was buoyed by the president-elect´s signal that he will try to forge a working coalition in the Mexican Congress and even invite representatives of 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."
STRENGTHENING COOPERATION
Those six years can be used to strengthen cooperation between the neighbors, said Crescencio Arcos, assistant secretary for international affairs in the Department of Homeland Security.
"That´s a huge plus," he said. "We hope Calderón continues to improve on the institutional relationship between the U.S. and Mexico on law enforcement. I think it´s (getting better), but we´re still not there yet."
The U.S. government doesn´t plan to "significantly" increase aid to Mexico, one official 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 Calderón will 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 multilateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank and others, to make an effort to finance infrastructure projects."
´GREAT OPPORTUNITY´
"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 Calderón 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 Calderón has decided not to make migration the centerpiece of Mexico-U.S. relations - unlike Fox.
Arturo Sarukhan, Calderón´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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