All Blog Posts from World Watch

President Obama’s trip to Guadalajara will focus on trade and drugs at a difficult time for the U.S. - Mexican relationship, in part because the administration has postponed its comprehensive immigration reform program until 2010.

The Mexico "three amigos" trip will focus on issues important to the U.S. domestic agenda even more than foreign policy – because Mexico remains the main transit point for drugs entering the U.S. and because Mexican drug gangs' principal source of guns is from the U.S.

For the Obama administration, visiting Mexico is high on the President’s agenda particularly since the U.S. Census bureau reported a few months ago that 14 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic and Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment, with 25 percent of live births nationwide.

On the U.S. – Mexico – Canada agenda are other issues related to the proximity of the three neighbors and their North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ties, including climate change and the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus.

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When I first saw the images of bloodied bodies and heard the tales of severed heads coming out of Mexico, I was riveted. It reminded me of Iraq, the shock value of chopping off heads and leaving the bodies on display, as powerful in Mexico as it was on the streets of Baghdad or Mosul or Falluja.

But when I went to Mexico, what I discovered was even more disturbing, as unsettling as the savage nature of the violence is to anyone.

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Walking through an evidence room at the ATF headquarters in el Paso, an agent points out a variety of deadly weapons — seized before they could make their way across the border into Mexico.

"This is a typical AK-47," he says, pulling one from the rack. Pointing out another firearm, he explains that it is capable of high-caliber rounds that can penetrate armored vehicles. Yet another has a huge scope, "which could be used as a sniper-type rifle."

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says Mexico is “not at this point” in danger of becoming a failed narco-state. But she says the ongoing drug cartel related violence is a threat to both Mexico and the United States.

Napolitano will be traveling to Mexico City April 1-3 to meet with her security counterparts and attend a conference on arms trafficking. Attorney General Eric Holder will also be there.

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It is the excessive amount of money from the illicit trade in cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines and weapons that not only seduces and corrupts, but is getting so many people killed in Mexico every day, writes CBS News producer Susana Seijas.

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