Mexico and Obama's Cabinet

El Universal and Poder both took a recent look at Obama's new cabinet members' relationship with Mexico. Poder's analysis was both more extensive and more optimistic, focusing not only on border-state governors like Bill Richardson and Janet Napolitano, but also Tim Geithner, Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Holder. (In the print edition, it also talks about Xavier Becerra, who's become a very outspoken opponent of Nafta, but that section isn't included in the online version*. Needless to say, the optimism slows down a bit with the new trade representative.) I didn't know this, but Poder describes Holder as a major voice arguing against the congressional decertification of Mexico as a friendly drug-fighting nation in the late 1990s.

El Universal discusses only Richardson and Napolitano, and finds flaws with both. Richardson flopped in his attempt to develop the border with Chihuahua, and Napolitano has a decidedly mixed record on illegal immigration. The crux of the matter, and indeed of all Mexican speculation about the cabinet, is summed up by Cuauhtémoc López, a professor in Baja California: 

Her profile as governor and her good relationship with the governor of Sonora don't carry any weight in the global affairs and strategic trans-border issues between the United States and Mexico. Let's remember that internal security and the control and monitoring of the borders of the United States is the axis of the security policy..."

The quote is a bit confusing, but it sounds to me like López is arguing for people to remember how limited the impact of the Mexico-firsters will be. If I have that right, I couldn't agree more. While I think it's great that Obama has compensated for his own lack of experience in Latin America, if Mexicans are expecting a wave of attention and understanding never before seen in the relationship, they are setting themselves up for disappointment. 

*And now I realize why. Whoops.