

Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, met with the Los Angeles Times for more than an hour while visiting California in November.
Salazar was eager to talk up the celebrations surrounding the U.S.-Mexico diplomacy bicentennial. We were eager to talk about the border. The pas de deux featured a lot of platitudes, a couple of tense moments, and a number I can’t shake: 13,000.
That was the estimate Salazar gave for the number of Mexicans who were studying at our universities at the time. Many of us were surprised to hear it was so low. We’ve been friends with Mexico for 200 years, and that’s all our diplomacy could muster? By comparison, our geopolitical adversary China had north of 300,000 on our campuses.
The reason for the gap between the two nations is obvious: Chinese students bring in an estimated $15 billion to the economy each year. Mexico’s economy is robust — the 15th largest in the world — but China is second only to the U.S. Apparently that number matters more than those 200 years.
And therein lies the rub.
Instead of sending 300,000 college students to the U.S. like China does, Mexico is being trampled by those two giants: China funnels fentanyl through Mexico to the U.S. market, and the U.S. exports guns to Mexico so the cartels can protect their product. It’s an ugly triangle of illicit trade, and Mexico gets the worse end of every deal.
And yet when drugs and guns claim lives on both sides of the U.S.’s southern border, Mexico is chastised for not doing more. More what exactly? President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had his own critique for Americans this month: “Why don’t you take care of your young people? Why don’t you take care of the serious problem of social decay? Why don’t [you] temper the constant increase in drug consumption?”
Those remarks came after Mexican authorities rescued the two Americans who were kidnapped by members of a drug cartel in Tamaulipas state this month. Two others were killed.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY LZ Granderson ON THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
TYT Newsroom
more recommended stories
Preparations for Water Week in Merida
Water Week, an event that seeks.
Power plant for Merida’s Ie-Tram to be installed
Sharing information on federal programs in southern Merida
MÉRIDA, Yucatan, March 26, 2023 –.
Some Yucatan beaches are covered with sargassum just before Semana Santa
Telchac Puerto – In recent weeks,.
Temporary closure of the Merida-Campeche highway due to the operation of section 3 of the Mayan Train.
Sunday, March 26, before noon, the.
Angry Popocatepetl volcano records 235 exhalations in 24 hours
During the last 24 hours, the.
CITES sanctions Mexico after not doing enough to prevent vaquita porpoise from extinction
The Convention on International Trade in.
This is the ‘cursed well’ that is causing panic in Merida
The presence of a ‘cursed well’.
Tulum has new opening hours for bars and nightclubs
Bars and nightclubs in Tulum have.
Two people charged after the events in downtown Merida during the World Water Day march
After being arrested for committing illegal.
Leave a Comment