MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico's Calderón slams US

” Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico'' said Calderón

President Felipe Calderón blasted the United States yesterday for immigration policies that have divided families and slowed the amount of money sent home by Mexicans living north of the border.

The criticism earned Calderón a standing ovation during his first state-of-the country address. ''We strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the US Congress and government that have only persecuted and exacerbated the mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers,'' he said. ''The insensitivity toward those who support the US economy and society has only served as an impetus to reinforce the battle ... for their rights.'' He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: ''Mexico does not end at its borders. Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.'' Calderón called on the country to create a foreign policy that ensured there was ''more Mexico in the world, and more of the world in Mexico.'' And he said the United States and Mexico need to work together to develop ''the region's enormous potential.'' ''We need to create a strong, winning Mexico that is sure of itself,'' he said. ''Mexico's challenge is being able to strengthen its international position.'' Since taking office in December, Calderón has maintained strong ties with the United States, but he also has not shied away from criticizing his powerful neighbour. He has often denounced US immigration policy, including stepped up deportations that have divided many families, sometimes forcing US-born children to build new lives in Mexico. In one of the most high-profile cases, illegal immigrant Elvira Arellano was deported recently to Mexico after spending a year in a Chicago church to avoid being sent home. Her 9-year-old son Saul, who is a US citizen, flew to Mexico on Friday to be reunited with his mother and plans to stay indefinitely, helping her fight to return to the United States. Calderón addressed his country from the National Palace, avoiding a showdown with lawmakers who had vowed to prevent him from making the speech in Congress, as Mexican tradition dictates. After intense negotiations, opposition legislators still angry over his narrow electoral victory last year agreed to let Calderón turn in his report at Congress' podium Saturday evening, although the leftist lawmaker presiding over the session, Ruth Zavaleta, refused to receive the thick stack of papers. Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal declared Calderón the winner of the July 2006 race nearly a year ago, rejecting leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador claims that Calderón's narrow victory was fraudulent. Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox, was also blocked last year from making his state-of-the-country address in Congress after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage and refused to give him passage. The lawmakers claimed Fox unfairly aided Calderón's win, which Fox denied. Both are members of the conservative National Action Party. López Obrador refused to recognize Calderón's eventual victory and declared himself leader of a parallel government. But he has largely disappeared from the public eye amid sharp divisions within his leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party. Calderón, meanwhile, has garnered some of the highest approval ratings in Mexico's history. He also said yesterday that Mexico has created 618,000 new jobs since January and needs to do more to close the giant gap between the rich and the poor. He also promised not to let up in his nationwide crackdown on drug gangs who control large swaths of Mexican territory. (BAH)