President Obama's Mexico visit comes with backdrop of uncertainty [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

President Obama's Mexico visit comes with backdrop of uncertainty

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's government is said to be wary of U.S. involvement in security affairs and is expected to change the way things are done.

By Shashank Bengali and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2013, 8:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON — President Obama travels to Mexico this week amid signs that the relationship between the United States and its southern neighbor's new government faces a new period of uncertainty after years of unprecedented closeness forged by the deadly war against Mexican drug cartels.

The government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is said to be wary of the level of U.S. involvement in security affairs that characterized the administration of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon. As a result, the Mexican government is expected to narrow U.S. involvement in its attorney general's office and Interior Ministry, the agencies that oversee police and intelligence, current and former U.S. and Mexican officials say.

Instead, Peña Nieto and officials from his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, want to concentrate U.S. participation in less sensitive but potentially profitable areas such as the economy.

Privately, the shifts have led to a large degree of concern in Washington about what the day-to-day working relationship will look like.

Publicly, the Obama administration has welcomed a broader agenda.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-mexico-20130429,0,7444757.story