Propuestas de Enrique Peña Nieto para el pueblo mexicano
Enrique Peña Nieto REUTERS

Tonight, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto sits down with Charlie Rose for a wide-ranging interview about Mexico’s politics, its economy and its future. The President also discusses two issues of vital interest to its neighbor to the north: immigration reform and what to do about the thousands of Central American minors who have illegally entered the United States. You can watch the interview tonight at 11PM ET on PBS or tomorrow night at 8PM and 10PM ET on Bloomberg TV.

After Peña Nieto was inaugurated in December 2012, having been elected on bold promises of economic growth and reform, “people began talking about Mexico in a very flattering way,” Charlie Rose said at the start of the interview, conducted over the weekend at Los Pinos, the official Presidential residence in Mexico City. “Then the economy slowed down. Your popularity slowed down... From your vantage point, what happened?”

“The implementation of the reforms takes time,” says President Peña Nieto. “The benefits of the reforms also take time. Nonetheless, what is a reality now in Mexico is that there have been changes, deep-reaching reforms in energy, in telecommunications, economic competition, fiscal, financial, education, political... Clearly, we see and we show the world that Mexico will have a horizon of great development in the following years. And my administration will, of course, have to carry out and do an efficient implementation of those reforms to ensure such a promising and encouraging future.”

President Peña Nieto also addressed concerns that the Mexican economy was flagging: “The truth is that all the economic indicators, month after month, since January until right now, June, clearly are showing better performance.” And he talked about taking on Mexico’s wealthiest citizen, multibillionaire Carlos Slim, over restructuring the country’s telecom industry. Peña Nieto said it was “fundamental” that Mexico have more even competition in the sector, “for the benefit of Mexican families, for the benefit of users who watch television, who use the telephone, for the benefit of small, medium-sized enterprises.”

Peña Nieto called the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. “close and intense” and characterized the current standing as “one of its best moments,” citing cooperation on economic policy and border security.

Peña Nieto spoke positively about U.S. attempts at immigration reform, and highlighted the important contributions immigrants have historically made in the U.S. It would be an “injustice” he said, if the U.S. did not recognize that the millions of migrants arriving there are “contributing to the development and wealth of that country.”

The Mexican President specifically addressed the issue of the flight of young children from Central America moving through Mexico to the United States:

“This is not a new phenomenon. But what is different from the past is the increasingly growing number of children. It’s almost a two-fold increase in just a few months of the number of children that are trying to reach the United States. Mexico has perhaps, in some ways, a good practice, in which it has officials devoted precisely to hold those children, to retain those children that are crossing through our territory, who are coming from Central America. And when they are repatriated, they’re not only sent to their places of origin, but they’re accompanied by... immigration officials. Mexico has shelters, which care for children trying to cross the border, who have no company with them. On this issue, we have to say that Mexico has taken steps and it’s still enforcing this policy to care for unaccompanied minor children. But this high number we’ve seen in recent months -- because this is something that just started happening recently. This has led us to have a dialogue and agreement with the U.S. government and with the Central American countries from where they come. And the commitment was made for all of us to take upon ourselves the responsibility to be acting in a more responsible fashion, so that gangs of organized crime are not using those minors... I think most of the time, they’re victims. This is a consequence of the abuse of criminal gangs that are devoted to trafficking with children, or to take migrants to the United States.”

© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.