Washington Watch - 28 May 2010
Brazil: On 24 May the Brazilian daily Folha de São Paulo reported that President Barack Obama had decided not to accept President Lula da Silva's invitation to visit Brazil ahead of the general elections in October this year. The official excuse is that Obama doesn't think it appropriate to visit in the middle of an election. Lula had been hoping to sprinkle some 'Obama dust' on his heir apparent, Dilma Rousseff, who is beginning to strengthen in the opinion polls. The daily speculated that the White House is miffed with Lula's recent diplomatic foray in Iran. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, long a hawk on Iran, has been dismissive of the Brazil-Turkey negotiated deal and is pressing ahead for UN-led sanctions on Iran. She is in China this week to confirm its support for the sanctions. The US state department stated that nothing in the letter changed the broader concerns over Iran's failure to “meaningfully engage" (over the nuclear issue).
Mexico:On 25 May an unnamed US official told the Mexican press that President Barack Obama was about to deploy 1,200 troops to the border with Mexico. The message was received and understood by the Mexican government. While the Mexican foreign ministry then issued a statement saying that the deployment was aimed at curbing the flow of weapons from the US to drug gangs in Mexico and would have nothing to do with securing the border against illegal migrants, the message in the US is different; the government says that it is responding to demands from politicians for tougher security along the border.
Mexico: On 19 May, during the state visit of Mexico's President Felipe Calderón, US President Barack Obama criticised the Arizona law while defending his own record on border security. He used the occasion to press Congress to pass legislation that enforces immigration laws and establishes a mechanism allowing illegal immigrants to pay a fine and back taxes to achieve legal status. The Arizona law was “a misdirected expression of frustration over our broken immigration system," Obama said. “We're examining any implications, especially for civil rights, because in the United States of America, no law-abiding person, be they an American citizen, a legal immigrant, or a visitor or tourist from Mexico, should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like."