(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121130-nieto-obama-hmed-330a.photoblog600.jpg)Jacquelyn Martin / APPresident Barack Obama shakes hands with Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto prior to their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012.By Maria Camila Bernal, TelemundoNews analysis
Mexico's new president Enrique Peña Nieto is surely hoping his inauguration on Saturday will help his country turn a new page in the relationship with its huge northern neighbor.
After all, Mexico is dogged by a six-year drug war that has claimed about 60,000 lives, pervasive corruption and an image problem around the world. So Peña Nieto will want to emphasize what the violence and the negative headlines obscure: Mexico's growing economy, swelling middle class and deepening economic and social ties with the U.S.
A recent editorial by Peña Nieto, who is returning to power the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional), the authoritarian party that ruled Mexico for more than 70 years, shed light on the new president's pivot.
NBCNews
I hope so too. 60,000 lives lost to drug war? An average of 10,000 per year.