How Was the President’s Speech in Mexico?

Posted by Tina

The President traveled to Mexico City to speak before a gathering of students at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Antropology). Among the many things he talked about, the President mentioned the violence that the people of Mexico have suffered. In the process he decried the number of guns in Mexico that he claims come mostly from the United States. While he vowed to uphold the American people’s Constitutional right to bear arms, he promised he would work toward reform of America’s gun laws. I was disappointed that our President would travel to Mexico to complain about our laws like an uninvolved bystander. The President didn’t come across as genuine to me. In many ways he seemed to be pandering, going for the votes…campaigning!

As he spoke of guns and violence he did not mention the Fast and Furious program that authorized guns to be intentionally walked across the border and into the hands of violent drug cartels. He didn’t mention the border patrol agents or the 300 Mexican’s that lost their lives because of this program. He did mention the violence in Mexico caused by America’s demand for illegal drugs:

In the United States, we recognize our responsibilities as well. We understand that the root cause of much of the violence here—and so much suffering for many Mexicans— is the demand for illegal drugs, including in the United States.

While taking responsibility for America’s drug users he skipped over the part about dangerous Mexicans living in America, growing weed, and pushing drugs on our streets. He didn’t mention the gangs that have settled in our cities and towns or the violent crimes they commit. And he didn’t mention the numbers of Mexicans in our prison system:

Of the immigrants in state prison, the most come from Mexico, according to the CDCR data. As of December 2010, they show a total of 15,985 inmates from our neighbor to the south. Of those, 1,928 are listed as being here legally, having no ICE hold.

Another 14,057 California prisoners are illegal immigrants from Mexico that are on an ICE hold or potential hold.

The President didn’t mention the costly burden that our states must bear for the illegal activity or the prisons to hold them. (Prison cost alone is in the millions of dollars in California).

Other than violence and crime, President Obama was effusive in his admiration for the strides the Mexican people have made in terms of their economy and democracy. But some Mexican’s in attendance were puzzled by his praise:

“[That was] a really good speech by President Obama, but what Mexico was he talking about?” said Jose Carlos Cruz, 24, a graduate student in international relations. “Unfortunately in our country, the situation is terrible: There’s poverty, unemployment, and even worse, the future is anything but promising.

“How nice that he came to give inspiring speeches, but what’s happening in Mexico is far from what he talked about today,” Cruz said.

I’m afraid that what is happening in America is also far from what the President talked about in this speech. While his tone was upbeat and positive his speech was cliched and lacked meaningful substance. It was, as is usually the case, a campaign speech and likely targeted to influence in the areas of immigration and gun reform.

As for guns, violence, and the culpability of the American people, I invite you to read this from the site, “Armed Females of America” and this from “Stratfor” which includes the following:

It has now become quite common to hear U.S. officials confidently assert that 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels come from the United States. However, a close examination of the dynamics of the cartel wars in Mexico — and of how the oft-echoed 90 percent number was reached — clearly demonstrates that the number is more political rhetoric than empirical fact.

As we discussed in a previous analysis, the 90 percent number was derived from a June 2009 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress on U.S. efforts to combat arms trafficking to Mexico (see external link).

According to the GAO report, some 30,000 firearms were seized from criminals by Mexican authorities in 2008. Of these 30,000 firearms, information pertaining to 7,200 of them (24 percent) was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing. Of these 7,200 guns, only about 4,000 could be traced by the ATF, and of these 4,000, some 3,480 (87 percent) were shown to have come from the United States.

This means that the 87 percent figure relates to the number of weapons submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF that could be successfully traced and not from the total number of weapons seized by Mexican authorities or even from the total number of weapons submitted to the ATF for tracing. In fact, the 3,480 guns positively traced to the United States equals less than 12 percent of the total arms seized in Mexico in 2008 and less than 48 percent of all those submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF for tracing. This means that almost 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico in 2008 were not traced back to the United States.

I give the President an E for effort in Mexico. I’m tired of America being characterized as the guilty party in all of the world’s problems. And truth be told, I’m pretty tired of the Presidents endless, boring campaigning.