Mixed Signals from Obama's Visit

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Mexico. Despite the context — it was Obama’s first official visit to our country in his second term, and it took place as a new Mexican government, headed by Enrique Peña Nieto, was settling into office — the U.S. president’s trip stuck strictly to its pre-established goals. In other words, he met his objectives, and there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Obama’s visit left us with mixed signals that will only become clear with time. For optimists, there is much fertile ground in both countries to cultivate a new type of relationship. For those who are more realistic, bilateral relations are still shrouded in suspicion, given the difficulties along the border with illegal immigration and drug and arms trafficking. In this context, there are two factors that contribute to this ambiguity: First, Obama made this trip alone, without the company of the secretary of state; second, the U.S. press showed scant interest in his tour, which was only followed by a handful of media outlets, suggesting that relations with the region are not at the top of the U.S. list of priorities.

Despite this, there are positives to be found. For one, not only did Peña’s government manage to address the topic of security — of undoubted importance, but it had meant the sacrifice of other fields of cooperation in the past — but this time, it also worked toward shaping a “High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue,” which aims to join the economic proposals of both nations to improve their trade relations. The two countries will begin working to evaluate the current state of North American Free Trade Agreement with the intention of generating better results. The work of this committee will thus have to be followed closely to measure its impact.

President Obama was not completely able to dodge the “age-old” topics that come up between the U.S. and Mexico, like border security, drug trafficking, arms trade, organized crime and migration; he merely emphasized that he would keep working on them, with Mexico’s help. Yes, these questions were left up in the air, but the aim of the visit was to provide economic answers; it was this objective that was met.

The Mexican government did put one foot wrong in, not bringing up the question of migration during this visit — it would have been the perfect moment. The debate around immigration reform has intensified in the U.S., and it seems wrong that Mexico should remain outside the debate, especially when said reform may give legal status to 11 million immigrants, about half of whom are Mexican.

Another upshot of the meeting was the importance placed on an educational agreement. Obama and Peña announced the formation of a bilateral forum for education, innovation and investigation, in order to expand programs for student exchanges and increase research in the educational sector, which in turn will widen economic opportunities in both countries.

According to the agreement, the forum will provide “greater access to post-secondary education” in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics for demographics traditionally left behind. Educational exchanges will also be increased between the two countries.

It all sounds positive for the fields of education, science, technology and research, though that is not to say we should get the flags out straight away. The federal government still has a lot of work to do in order to improve the quality of this country’s education system. There is no use dreaming of a promising future if the conditions are not currently conducive to making it a reality. If only this were the case! Nonetheless, let us hope this educational reform is the watershed moment to improve education in Mexico.

Obama’s state visit to Mexico was quick, but this was perhaps what was needed to begin smoothing things over between the nations. Its results are not tangible as of yet — they are barely qualitative — but let us hope for the good of our country that they become quantitative before long.

Those who are banking on a different Mexico hope that this visit will be the beginning of a new relationship with the U.S., one between equal neighbors, defined by collaboration and shared responsibility. It might take its time, but crazier things have happened.