OBAMA'S FIRST MEETING WITH CALDERON

President-elect Barack Obama is set to meet with Mexican President
Felipe Calderon today in what will be his first visit with a foreign
leader since the election. This encounter will give Obama his first
opportunity to focus significant attention on Latin America, and
whatever messages the president-elect chooses to send will be taken
quite seriously throughout the hemisphere.

More than new proposals, leaders and citizens there will be looking
for a new tone, a sense that the Obama administration will be willing
to listen to their concerns and work in partnership with Latin
American countries.

The issue of drug-trafficking organizations and the threat they pose
to both countries is likely to be front and center of the discussion
between Obama and Calderon. More 5,000 people have lost their lives
in Mexico this year in drug-related murders, and the cartels have
increasingly corrupted government agencies, bought off politicians
and silenced the press.

The violence is also threatening to spill over to the U.S. While
Mexico has become a producer and trans-shipment point for narcotics,
the U.S. is the world's largest consumer market for them and sends
$15 billion to $25 billion from drug sales back to the cartels each
year in illegal cash and weapons.

The Obama administration has an opportunity to take a new,
comprehensive approach to drug trafficking that could go a long way
toward undermining cartels and reducing violence. The first step
would be to ramp up efforts to stop the flow of illegal cash and
weapons to Mexico and to increase federal investments in programs
that reduce consumption.

At the same time, the new administration should continue to deepen
law enforcement cooperation and provide help for Mexico's efforts to
reform the police and courts.

The other major agenda item is sure to be the economy. Ironically,
the last time the two countries had to face a major crisis, it was
Mexico's peso crisis in 1994 that was threatening to spill over.
Today it is America's credit crisis that is threatening to engulf the
Mexican economy and many others farther south. There is little the
two countries can do to prevent this, but maintaining close
consultation on economic policy is a good start.

There is also an unusual opportunity here. Both countries are
planning major stimulus packages that include infrastructure
investment. There is a chance to use some of those funds on both
sides of the border to improve the infrastructure of border
communities, including border crossing stations and roads.

Finally, there are any number of issues for the future that the two
leaders may want to start thinking about. These include
opportunities to increase educational exchange, especially in science
and technology,; develop alternative energy technologies together and
look at creative options for providing lower-cost treatment to
Medicare patients in certified hospitals in Mexico.

And, of course, there is always the difficult issue of immigration,
where the U.S. has an urgent need to bring its outmoded immigration
system up to date, while Mexico has much to do to provide
opportunities for Mexicans to stay at home.

None of these issues will be resolved in the first meeting, but
perhaps this encounter will set the tone for a more creative and
fluid dialogue between the two countries -- and with other countries
in Latin America as well.