Latin America and the New U.S. President

Filed in archive Latin Issues on June 8, 2008

© Lucy Nieto



Well, it looks like Obama is the Democratic candidate who will be running against mccain.

It should be interesting. According to the L.A. Times, Obama is the favorite with the international community. McCain? Not many people know who he is. But on the home front, the country is still split.

Looking to Latin America, it'll be interesting to see what the border wall supported by both candidates does to U.S. relations in the region.

Under the Bush administration, the results have not exactly spelled progress. So will the next president focus on the root cause of immigration?

"We do consider, in a respectful way, that we may truly stop the migration by building a kilometer of highway in Michoacan or Zacatecas than 10 kilometers of walls in the border," said Calderon, who believes that jobs in Mexico, not barriers on the border, will stem migration.

Mexicans view the fence as an insult that has aggravated already strained relations with their powerful northern neighbor. Bush worked to allay their concerns, saying the barrier and stepped up enforcement along the border were only the first steps in a comprehensive immigration law overhaul that he hoped would include a guest worker program.- Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Washington Post

We'll see come January.