Obama embarks on Latin American Trip

Barack Obama will make history on Thursday afternoon, as he will be the first American president to visit Mexico since Bill Clinton visited 12 years ago. He will meet with President Felipe Calderon to talk about some of the local and trade issues affecting these countries. On the agenda is economy, energy, immigration and settling the problem of trucks from Mexico coming across the border. The most prominent issue that will be addressed is drug violence. Parliament is confident that both the US and Mexico can team up together to end the violence caused by drug cartels. The Obama Administration has already made steps towards this by initatiing stiff financial sanctions on the Kingpin's of the drug cartels. This legislation allows the US government to seize their assets.

Barack is working hard in forming a Mexican policy along with Felipe Calderon, that shares the responsibility between the two countries to combat the drug problem. Obama has referred to American's acceptance of these drugs play a large role in the motives of these cartels. Mr. Obama comes here fresh from a much-publicized swing through Europe that put him squarely on the world stage. The Latin America trip, which will include a visit to Trinidad and Tobago, may not be as high-profile; for one thing, First Lady Michelle Obama, who gave the Europe trip an added touch of pizazz, is staying back in Washington. But the president has made repairing relations with world leaders a signature of his foreign policy, and the visit will give him a chance to do that in a region he is less familiar with.In addition to tackling the drug problem, they will also be discussing the trade relations. With the North American Free Trade Agreement, the ties are strong and consequently Mexico is feeling the pinch of the American economy.


Opinion: In my opinion, I believe that these international visits to other countries are somewhat a waste of time unless policies are directly put in immediately. These drug cartels have been a large problem for a long time now, but every now and than the U.S. has to hold Mexico's hand and spoonfeed them on plans on our to save their country. Countries should start being accountable for their actions and think of positive and favorable solutions. The U.S. has put their policy in place to sieze three of the cartel's assets, but the Mexican government should also take iniative and put a similiar policy in place for the other smaller cartels. Simply stopping these cartels in the present, will not help them in the future, because more and more youths are being influenced by drug violence. The key is to have a good education system in a favorable environment, that keeps these kids out of bad influence. Improving the education will protect the kids of the future, and putting immediate policies in place now ill prevent harm being done to Mexican and U.S. citizens over the border.