On Wednesday President Felipe Calderon met with President Barack Obama at the White House.  The top issues that both presidents discussed were obviously  the war on drugs and immigration, the latter got to the agenda, if it wasn’t for the anti-immigration law SB1070 that was approved last month in Arizona, causing outrage in all sectors of the Mexican society, otherwise this state visit was going to focus only on the war on drugs and border security.

During the joint press conference, President Calderon expressed that Mexico firmly rejects  the criminalization of migrants and that the SB1070 law of Arizona  parts of  unfair, biased and discriminatory values.

Like many, I believe that this law is harsh, unfair and that encourage racial hate and goes against democratic values and human rights, as well that this, by no means will solve this social problem that has been afflicting for decades both countries.

It’s clear that the U.S must approve an immigration reform that benefits and allows to regulate the status of those that have already established over there, but we must not lose sight that the Mexican government has also a huge task on their hands that have not been carried out for decades, which is to improve the quality of life, create jobs and opportunities for everyone, so no one has the need to leave the country, illegally or legally. I strongly believe that Mexico needs more of its people working for the country and revitalize its economy.

What really bugs me of  President Calderon when he condemns the SB1070 law, is that he pretends to be a great human rights defender, when in fact his government has criminalize innocents, based on false evidence, and committed human rights violations in name of the fight against the organized crime.  As an example of this, on Tuesday, Human Right Watch urged President Obama to question President Calderon on this issue.

As for the war on drugs, time has shown, that this fight clearly hasn’t given any results in the three years of this so call “war against the organized crime”; the government have not managed to hold back the violence, as president Calderon promised when he launched this war, despite that before he took power there wasn’t so much violence.  To have an idea of this, during  the six years of Vicente Fox’s presidency (2000-2006), the figure of people killed related to drug violence, according to Milenio Diario, were of 8,780 compared to the official figure given recently by the Mexican government of  22, 743 in the three years of this nonsense fight.

Mexico has constantly pointed out, that  part of the violence that the country is  witnessing relies on the U.S, which hasn’t done enough to stop gun trafficking and reducing drug consumption. President Obama has acknowledged the U.S responsibility on these regards, but the truth is that President Calderon is far more responsible of the mess  in which currently the country stands.

But, how sincere this war really is? Apparently not very much. There has been some rumors  going on, that the government is favoring the Sinaloa cartel. This past February dozen of messages of  ‘Los Zetas’ cartel appeared in cities  of the states of  Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Quintana Roo, Coahuila, Sonora and Veracruz, accusing the federal government of  giving protection to the drug kingpin of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín ‘El Chapo Guzmán’ Loera, the same man that managed to escape, back in 2001, from the high security prison of “Puente Grande” through the front door. This week the National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast a four month investigation on this, in which seems they have confirmed it. 

At the end, the problems that Mexico is facing, it all comes down to these two key issues. While the country doesn’t provides social welfare to all of its citizens, immigration and the organized crime won’t be eradicated. Many believe that President Calderon hasn’t really accomplished anything, and we are just one year and half  from the 2012 presidential race.

Reference links

http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/?DNA=85&Contenido=56662

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/681274.html

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/74744.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126894829&ft=1&f=1003