US President Barack Obama greets guests before speaking at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
US President Barack Obama greets guests before speaking at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Friday, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, right, leave after offering a joint news conference in Mexico City, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Seeking to put a new spin on a long-standing partnership, Obama is promoting jobs and trade - not drug wars or border security - as the driving force behind the U.S.-Mexico relationship. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
A woman holds her child as she attends a protest outside the U.S. embassy before the arrival of President Barack Obama in Mexico City, Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
President Barack Obama answers questions during the news conference with Mexico?s President Enrique Pena Nieto, at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Calling for an end to "old stereotypes," President Barack Obama on Friday portrayed Mexico as an emerging nation that is remaking itself and said the U.S.-Mexico relationship should be defined by shared prosperity, not by threats that both countries face. "It's time to recognize new realities," he declared.
In a speech to a predominantly student audience, Obama conceded that the root of much violence in Mexico is the demand for drugs in the United States, and acknowledged that most guns used to commit crime in this country come from the U.S. But he said an improving economy is changing Mexico and improving its middle class.
"I see a Mexico that is deepening your democracy," he told several hundred people gathered on a cool, breezy morning in a covered, outdoor plaza at Mexico City's grand National Museum of Anthropology. "Citizens who are standing up and saying that violence and impunity is not acceptable."
Obama said he is optimistic that the U.S. will change its patchwork of immigration laws and says the current immigration system does not reflect U.S. values. With about 6 million Mexicans illegally in the United States, the issue resonates deeply in Mexico, which has also seen deportations of its citizens from the U.S. rise dramatically under Obama.
Underlying Obama's visit was his desire to convince the American public and U.S. lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did.
"The long-term solution to the challenge of illegal immigration is a growing, prosperous Mexico that creates more jobs and opportunity right here," he said.
To that end, he called for improving an already growing trade relationship between the two countries. Mexico is the second-largest export market for U.S. goods and services and the U.S. buys more Mexican exports than any other country.
Still, the reality of Mexico's economic surge is perhaps not as rosy as Obama portrayed it. While the Mexican economy has grown, it has yet to trickle down to average workers.
Obama spoke on the second day of his Mexico City visit, before traveling to Costa Rica. There, he planned to deliver a blunter message to Central American leaders struggling with weak economies and drug violence.
Obama was to meet with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla before joining leaders from the Central American Integration system. The regional network also includes the leaders of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The U.S. view of the region is that its pervasive violence and security weaknesses are holding back economic growth, and that with fewer Mexicans crossing the border illegally, the rest of the region has become the main source of illegal immigration into the United States.
As a result, Obama is expected to call for stepped up security cooperation, regional economic integration and improvements in human rights and democratic reforms.
"We want to make sure that our hemisphere is more effectively integrated to improve the economy and security of all peoples," Obama said Thursday. "There is a whole range of opportunities, and that will be the purpose of this trip."
Friday's speech came as Obama's popularity in Mexico has risen in recent years and as views of the United States also improve. A Pew Research Center poll in March found that two-thirds of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared with 44 percent in 2010. About half of Mexicans have confidence that Obama will do the right thing on world affairs, up from 38 percent in 2011.
Still, dozens of migrant families deported from the U.S. even though their children were born there rallied outside the U.S. Embassy before Obama's arrival Thursday. "Obama, don't deport my Mama," one sign said. So far, the Obama administration has deported more than 1.6 million people.
For all the attention to commerce and trade, the visit to Mexico ? less than two days long ? was not designed for major breakthroughs or new initiatives. Indeed, on one of the top economic pacts before them, the two presidents merely reaffirmed a goal to conclude negotiations this year on a Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Asia-Pacific trading bloc that is key to Obama's efforts to boost exports to Asia.
Both men, however, did announce a new partnership to build on the business relationship with closer cooperation between top officials in Mexico and the U.S., including Vice President Joe Biden.
At a joint news conference Thursday, Obama and Pena Nieto carefully sidestepped potential trouble spots. Obama steered clear of commenting on Pena Nieto's decision to end the broad access that U.S. security agencies have had in Mexico to combat drug trafficking, a decision that has alarmed some U.S. officials.
"President Pena Nieto and his team are organizing a vision about how they can most efficiently and effectively address these issues," Obama said. "And we will interact with them in ways that are appropriate, respecting that ultimately Mexico has to deal with its problems internally and we have to deal with ours as well."
For his part, Pena Nieto declined to get drawn into the current immigration debate in Washington, a top priority for Obama but one that is at a delicate stage in Congress. Asked to comment on the debate, the Mexican president merely said the Mexican government acknowledged the efforts under way in Congress.
"Mexico understands that this is a domestic affair for the U.S. and we wish you the best push that you're giving to immigration," he said.
Likewise, he demurred when asked to react to the failure in the U.S. Senate to pass gun control legislation, including an expanded background check for firearms buyers, even though many guns obtained illegally in the U.S. make their way into the hands of drug dealers in Mexico.
He said he agreed with Obama's campaign to stem gun violence, but added: "This is a domestic issue in the United States."
Obama vowed to keep pressing for gun legislation, saying: "We recognize we've got obligations when it comes to guns that are oftentimes being shipped down South and contributing to violence here in Mexico."
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