Mexico pledged to strengthen border security and stem the flow of illegal migrants heading north, and said it will use a visit by US President George W. Bush this week to prod US lawmakers on immigration reform.
Border issues are expected to be the focus of a two-day meeting that began yesterday between Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Fox was planning to use the talks to press the US Congress to back a migration accord favorable to Mexico, but Mexican officials warned against expecting big results from the meeting.
"We will reiterate to President Bush ... to the American Congress that Mexico is willing to take responsibility on the migration issue, to look for solutions domestically to the migration problem," Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said late on Wednesday.
"With that, we hope to strengthen this position that legalization of those already in the United States is needed," Derbez said, while warning "please don't expect a major breakthrough" at the meeting.
Mexico's deputy secretary for North America, Geronimo Gutierrez, said, "We think it is in the interest of both nations to have a modern and secure border because every day 1 million people legally cross it."
Fox, whose term ends Dec. 1, has also responded to calls from the US for greater cooperation on border security.
Some of Mexico's cooperation pledges come from a document that was approved by the Mexican Congress in February. The document, dubbed Mexico Before the Migration Phenomenon, outlines goals and recommendations of a committee of Mexican legislators, executive branch officials, diplomats, academics, foreign policy experts and social group leaders.
Fox will also push for the expansion of an existing guest-worker program when he meets with Harper. Mexico sends about 12,000 Mexican workers per year to work in agriculture and construction mainly in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba. Gutierrez said Mexico will like to expand the guest-worker program to two more Canadian provinces.
Harper will also be intent on sparking a thaw in frosty relations between Ottawa and the White House during a one-on-one meeting between Bush yesterday.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS