Obama’s Mexico Visit: Not Just About the Drug War Anymore

[Time]

When former Mexican President Felipe Calderón waged his war on drug cartels, the media were guaranteed a crime photo op every few weeks. Alleged gangsters were thrust before the press along with heaps of guns, money and narcotics. These narco-perp walks were often accompanied by videos in which heavy-breathing suspects confessed how they had committed hundreds of murders and smuggled tons of cocaine to American users. And the parades often coincided with top U.S. officials visiting Mexico and trumpeting how the two nations stood shoulder to shoulder in their joint fight against cartel crime. However, it is unlikely that U.S. President Barack Obama will be shown any such displays when he visits Mexico this Thursday. Since President Enrique Peña Nieto took power in December, the parades have stopped as part of an overhaul in the government's security strategy. (Human-rights defenders also decried these staged pantomimes of justice.) Peña Nieto has shifted focus from fighting cartels to modernizing the economy and has encouraged media outlets to dedicate less coverage to decapitations and shoot-outs. In the run-up to Obama's visit, both governments have emphasized trade and immigration reform over the battle with the cocaine kings. "The Peña Nieto administration has made it clear it wants to reduce the emphasis on violence and wants to talk about other things such as its reform agenda," says security analyst Alejandro Hope, a former official of Mexico's intelligence agency, CISEN. "It wants to change the conversation." (MORE: Is the World Overhyping Mexico's Boom?) This strategic shift of Peña Nieto, whose election returned to power the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled Mexico for most of the past century, is being debated on both sides of the Rio Grande. In his defense, Peña Nieto stresses that his government still arrests drug traffickers but does not let them dominate the national agenda. The first four months of his government saw similar quantities of drugs seized overall as in the same time frame under Calderón, albeit with a little more cocaine and a little less marijuana. However, Peña Nieto

Via: TIME GlobalSpin

[Folami David]

It's good to see a president as serious as this. It always feels good when things like this happen. Very fantastic president.