President Obama's Mexico visit comes with backdrop of uncertainty

[Judi Lynn]

President Obama's Mexico visit comes with backdrop of uncertainty

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's government is said to be wary of U.S. involvement in security affairs and is expected to change the way things are done.

By Shashank Bengali and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2013, 8:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON — President Obama travels to Mexico this week amid signs that the relationship between the United States and its southern neighbor's new government faces a new period of uncertainty after years of unprecedented closeness forged by the deadly war against Mexican drug cartels.

The government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is said to be wary of the level of U.S. involvement in security affairs that characterized the administration of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon. As a result, the Mexican government is expected to narrow U.S. involvement in its attorney general's office and Interior Ministry, the agencies that oversee police and intelligence, current and former U.S. and Mexican officials say.

Instead, Peña Nieto and officials from his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, want to concentrate U.S. participation in less sensitive but potentially profitable areas such as the economy.

Privately, the shifts have led to a large degree of concern in Washington about what the day-to-day working relationship will look like.

Publicly, the Obama administration has welcomed a broader agenda.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-mexico-20130429,0,7444757.story

[ocpagu]

1. That's very interesting.

I don't know what to think of it yet. Perhaps part of the right-wing in L.A (Santos in Colombia, Peña Nieto in Mexico) has realized that it has to make concessions and move to center if it wants to keep a minimum of relevance and remaining alive while the leftist wave spreads through the continent. Or perhaps they are just paying lip-service to ensure the continuity of support of the electoral base that does not identify with conservative values but is also fearful of the left-wing due to constant media distortion and lies. But it sounds positive.

Thanks for sharing.

[naaman fletcher]

2. I could be wrong

But Santos seems to me to be the "real deal". He's really gone out on a limb against Uribe.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It would be great to see something positive from a "me, first" oligarch, wouldn't it? n/t