Washington (dpa) - President Barack Obama is to travel this
week to a Latin America that Washington no longer sees as just a
source of trouble with drug trafficking and other security issues.
Now, the United States sees its southern neighbours also as a
region that offers generous, and growing, opportunities for trade and
economic exchange.
As Obama travels to Mexico and Costa Rica on a three-day trip
starting Thursday, the White House has made it clear that security
and the fight against the drug gangs will remain at the top of the
agenda - but that economic and commercial issues are to have pride
of place too.
"There's so much more to the relationship - in terms of commerce,
in terms of trade, in terms of energy. And so we want to highlight
some of the close cooperation that's already been taking place and to
continue to build on that, so that we're creating more jobs and more
opportunity on both sides of the borders," Obama said of Mexico.
Faced with a US economy that remains sluggish in its effort to
recover from crisis and create jobs, a region like Latin America,
expected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grow by 3.4 per
cent overall this year, is an attractive market.
It is also one that is very close to the United States - and
Washington is keen to avoid Chinese influence growing even more in
the area it still considers its "back yard."
When he Met with Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade last
week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Obama had given him clear
instructions to expand the agenda between the two countries.
"President Obama has asked me to focus on how we can strengthen
our economic partnerships in Latin America and Central America,"
Kerry said.
"We don't want to define this relationship with Mexico or with
other countries in the context of security or, you know,
counter-narcotics traffic. We want to define it much larger in the
context of our citizens' economic needs and our capacity to do more
on the economic front," Kerry said.
The words were well received in Mexico, which has a new government
and a new party in power. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who
took office in December, has been keen to distance himself from the
war that his predecessor Felipe Calderon declared on the drug gangs -
at a cost of more than 60,000 lives during his six-year mandate.
As Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong put it in
Washington, Mexico seeks ties among "equals" with its northern
neighbour, based on a simple premise: "Mexico needs the United
States, but the United States also needs Mexico."
Despite the mutual interest in broadening the agenda, however,
security will remain ever-present, according to Michael Shifter,
president of the Washington-based think-tank Inter-American Dialogue.
"It is not surprising that Pena Nieto wants to change the
narrative that dominated the Calderon period. But reality matters,
and if the security situation does not improve, it will not be
possible to put it under the rug," Shifter told dpa.
"Obama will agree to tout the economic message but will also
convey that progress needs to be made on the security front," the
expert said.
Obama will be able to take to Mexico and Costa Rica - as a trophy
or at least a promising gesture - recent progress on immigration
reform, a long-time demand from Latin Americans and the country's
estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
However, no matter how welcome US efforts on immigration and
investment are, Central American leaders who are to meet with Obama
in Costa Rica have already made it clear that they expect more from
Washington, particularly regarding security and the fight against the
drug trade.
"We agree that as long as the main consumer market for drugs (the
United States) does not get more involved, the fight against drug
trafficking and organized crime will not be enough, nor will it
deliver the results we hope for," Salvadorian President Mauricio
Funes said in Washington earlier this month.
A likely bone of contention is the change of "focus" in the
anti-drug strategy that Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla is
expected to demand on behalf of the whole of Central America.
Obama last saw all his Central American peers together last year,
at the Summit of the Americas in the Colombian city of Cartagena. At
the time, he managed to shake off the pressure by saying he was
willing to discuss the option of legalizing some drugs, without
further commitments.
According to Shifter, that will no longer be enough.
"Obama will have to go further and commit the United States to
engaging in a serious search for alternatives to a policy that has
not worked and that is contributing to deepening insecurity in
Central America," he said.
