Problems in U.S.-Mexico relationship that must be solved
TIJUANA, Mexico -- Mexico and the United States have a twisted relationship.
Dysfunctional: Each country likes to blame the other for its problems, and neither is eager to accept responsibility. Making matters worse, history comes with hard feelings; the United States claimed it was "manifest destiny" to conquer half of Mexico in 1848. Since then, Mexico has been skeptical of U.S. foreign policy excursions such as the Iraq War, which it opposed.
Dangerous: Americans rationalize that predatory Mexican drug dealers, not bad parenting, get their kids hooked on drugs; Mexicans complain that it is American consumption, as opposed to corruption in Mexico, that keeps ruthless drug cartels in business. Thousands of automatic weapons flow each year from the United States to Mexico. Mexicans want Americans to stop exporting illegal guns just as Americans want Mexico to stop exporting illegal immigrants. Truth is, there's a market for both.
Dependent: As much as Mexicans and Americans complain about one another, they can't get enough of each other. They devour each other's food and culture. After crossing the border here, you see a Starbucks, a Costco and a T.G.I. Friday's; back home in a suburb of San Diego, the neighborhood store sells horchata, a rice milk drink popular in Mexico.
U.S.-Mexico relations were on the menu when members of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board met here with Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan, the governor of Baja California. Other topics included drug violence, tourism, energy, immigration and the newest Mexican commodity Americans are devouring: affordable gasoline.
Osuna Millan trained as an economist after arriving here as a young man to work in a maquiladora factory on the border. So he understands that his state's economic well-being depends on American tourists feeling comfortable enough to visit and spend their dollars, as well as on American and European investment in the region. In office for almost eight months, Osuna Millan isn't shy about rattling off his concerns -- from congestion at the border that hurts commerce on both sides to what he believes is an unfairly negative portrayal in American news media of his border state as violently out of control.
"We're always going to be neighbors," he said. "We're going to live together forever. Our intent is to highlight positive trends. We have to talk about our problems. But let's find solutions."
However, what I didn't hear much of was what the governor was doing on his end, either to improve the lives of the people in his state or to enhance the relationship between Mexico and the United States.
It is a relationship of convenience. American teenagers have long treated Tijuana and Baja California as their liquor store. Now baby boomers come here for prescription drugs and affordable dental work.
At the moment, there's another Mexican commodity that Americans are eager to get their hands on: cheap gasoline. With gas prices in the San Diego area approaching $4.75 a gallon, some residents are traveling 5 to 15 miles to Tijuana to save $2 a gallon. The Americans are clearly taking advantage. One reason the price of gas in Mexico is so low is that the government controls the petroleum industry and subsidizes the product. It does this to help Mexicans, not their neighbors. The issue has become such a sore spot that some angry residents of Tijuana are demanding that government officials do something -- perhaps impose an additional tax on gas pumped into foreign vehicles.
It's the kind of problem that a former maquiladoraworker-turned-border-state-governor had better try to solve. Or all the positive news coverage in the world won't be enough to save him.
(c) 2008, Washington Post
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