Calderón interview

President Calderón gave an interview in which he explicitly rejected Jorge Castañeda’s suggestion that he become an ideological counterweight to Hugo Chávez ("I am not interested in playing a role with Bush in that aspect”).

His discussion about issues he would raise during Bush’s upcoming visit also highlight how the administration needs to reframe the way it interacts with Latin America. In short, the U.S. has supply-obsessed policies. With regard to immigration, we blame Mexico for its failure to keep its own people in, and we build a wall to keep them out, without acknowledging that we share the blame for the huge number of illegal immigrants in the country. With drugs, we want a militarized solution (indeed, much of that vaunted aid President Bush talks about is military) and routinely criticize other countries’ failure to fight drug trafficking without admitting it would evaporate if Americans stopped snorting cocaine in large quantities.

And then we want more credit.