Guest Column
Calderón looks to Washington
- By Fred Rosen
- The Herald Mexico/El Universal
- January 7, 2007
This past January 25, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza issued a press release to let Mexicans know that George Bush had called Felipe Calderón the previous day "to congratulate him on his leadership and for the efforts of the Mexican government to establish law and order in the country by combating drug trafficking and violence."
The nature of the Ambassador’s announcement suggested that the amicability of the conversation, more that its precise content, was the news worth conveying to the public. Calderón, said Garza’s memo to the press, made use of the call to raise the issue of migration, and Bush, responding positively, "reaffirmed his commitment to a fundamental migratory reform that would include a temporary worker program."
Over the first 60 days of his presidency, Felipe Calderón has done his best to improve relations with the Bush administration. His decision to extradite powerful drug capos, to crack down on civil disorder ( or "violence," to use Garza’s term), to lift tariffs on additional corn imports, to regularize cross-border migration by pushing for a "guest worker" program in the United States and most recently his strong, open criticism of the nationalist economic policies of certain South American countries, seem all to have been designed, beyond whatever other merits they may have had, to draw Mexico more tightly into the orbit of U.S. policies.
Indeed, Calderón is apparently trying to position himself as Washington’s effective point man in the Americas - something that Vicente Fox could never quite achieve. He is betting that a close relation with Washington will allow him to more easily accomplish the principal goals he has set for himself: to rule forcefully, to restore law and order to the country and to attract plentiful foreign investment to promote economic growth.
This has clearly made the Bush administration happy. Washington is betting that a close relation with Los Pinos will ease its border problems and help restore Latin America as a sphere of U.S. power and influence.
Over the past few years, the Bush administration has relied on El Salvador´s president, Tony Saca, to represent its interests in the Americas. While Saca will still play an important role, Calderón governs a country with a lot more economic, political and cultural weight. A strong Mexican ally, Washington reasons, can counterbalance the anti-U.S. nationalism that has been growing throughout the region.
But this close relationship presents a contradiction that Mexico’s new president must overcome. Mexicans, by and large, are ambivalent about U.S.-Mexican relations. On the one hand, speaking in broad generalities, they drive U.S. cars, watch U.S. movies, wear U.S. baseball caps, shop in Wal-Mart and, of course, receive remittances from relatives in California, Texas and points northeast. On the other hand, they strongly identify with the culture and politics of Latin America and the with the region´s common sentiment that the U.S. sees itself as the hemisphere´s informal colonial power.
Calderón has told the Mexican public many times, during his campaign and during his nascent presidency, that an administration under his control would look south, rather than north, for its international alliances and agreements. Indeed, Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa has repeatedly said that Calderón wants to tighten Mexico’s bonds with the countries of Latin America.
So what explains the very public rapprochement with Washington? Two things: First, Calderón would like to integrate Mexico into a community of Latin American nations, but as a dominant power, not as a co-equal partner with countries like Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. Second, Calderón genuinely believes that the free flow of global investment will help lift his country out of poverty and underdevelopment. The investment he wants to attract is much more likely to come from the north than from the south.
Two days after Bush’s phone call, on a panel on Latin American economic policies at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, Calderón accused Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela of negatively affecting foreign investments - especially the investments of Spanish companies - with their policies in favor of "expropriation and nationalization." This brought a strong rebuke from his co-panelist, Brazilian President Lula, but he kept at it.
A few days later, touring Europe, he told the Spanish daily paper, La Vanguardia that Mexico would act as "an insurance policy (un seguro) against populisms." Mexico, that is, would welcome investors who were fleeing countries that didn’t offer sufficient protection.
"I want to convert Mexico," he said, "into one of the best destinations in the world for investment." What does that mean for Pemex? Tony Garza is staying tuned.
- Correction: In my last column I inadvertently misstated the level of the minimum wage in Mexico. The current minimum wage now ranges from 47.60 pesos a day in low-cost-of-living rural areas to 50.57 pesos in urban areas with higher average prices. I apologize for the error.
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- Contact Fred Rosen at: frosen144@hotmail.com
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