In his second big trip abroad since becoming US president, Barack Obama arrived in Mexico yesterday to show support for the Mexican government’s efforts to fight a devastating drug war and boost security along the US border.
Obama, who made his first foray onto the international stage in Europe earlier this month, will discuss energy and the economy with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City before heading to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas today.
White House officials played up the symbolism of the stop in Mexico, which is struggling to contain unprecedented criminal violence and combat a drugs war that is spilling over into the US.
Denis McDonough, the Director of Strategic Communications at the White House’s National Security Council, said Obama’s visit underscored US support for its southern neighbor at the highest levels.
“It’s designed to send a very clear signal to our friends in Mexico City that we have a series of shared challenges as it relates to the economy, as it relates to security, insecurity, the threat of violence and the impact of drug trafficking on both our countries,” he told reporters this week.
The Obama administration is tightening the US-Mexico border to prevent trafficking of US guns to Mexican cartels and is hoping to send Black Hawk helicopters to help Calderon defeat well-armed drug gangs that killed thousands last year.
Obama, a Democrat, hopes to improve relations with Mexico and other Latin American countries during his trip after a decay in relations that his advisers blame on his Republican predecessor, former US president George W. Bush.
Obama’s outreach to Mexico has already included a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who soothed Mexicans by acknowledging the violence there stemmed partly from Americans’ “insatiable demand” for drugs.
On Wednesday US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano named a “border czar,” Alan Bersin, a former Justice Department official who had served in a similar role under former US president Bill Clinton.
“His ... sole mission is to make sure that all of the things happening with Mexico right now are happening in real time and producing the kinds of results that we anticipate,” she told reporters at a news conference at the Mariposa port of entry.
Despite its resonance in the US-Mexican relationship, the White House said that drugs would not be the only topic of discussion between the two presidents. Energy, trade and the economy would also feature.
Obama will likely echo the conclusions of a G20 summit in London this month with a promise to avoid protectionism — a message Calderon is eager to hear. Mexico, a partner with Canada and the US in the 1994 NAFTA trade pact, sends 80 percent of its exports to its northern neighbor.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS