Biden’s big trip: Uncertainty at home, thorny issues abroad dominate global tour
While the Democratic presidential primary may have turned into the nation’s top news story this month, the trip of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Latin America last week underscored the challenge that the next president will face as he or she embarks on a world tour.
President Barack Obama’s administration has been in turmoil since the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, and the president’s chief of staff has said he will not seek re-election. Clinton is on a three-nation swing through Latin America, with stops planned or announced in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. The foreign trip is expected to be a major test of foreign policy and the Obama administration’s relationship with Latin American governments.
And what of the U.S.-Mexico relations and the thorny issues that confront Clinton when she’s on the ground?
One of the first things she must do when she arrives in Mexico City on Saturday is to resolve a political crisis involving her husband and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
The secretary of state will visit the southern city of Puebla on Saturday to mark three years since former President Felipe Calderón took office. As part of his term, his administration has led a major push to combat Mexico’s drug cartels, a struggle that has left the capital of Mexico City under the control of anti-drug gangs.
During a visit to Mexico City a few weeks ago, Clinton said she had asked her husband not to make a campaign appearance in Las Vegas, which hosted the Republican convention. That may soon change if the state of Nevada joins a lawsuit by Texas to nullify a federal law that made it more difficult for the state to continue sending welfare and food stamp benefits to non-citizens.
The trip is Clinton’s first in Mexico since becoming secretary of state. And the state of relations between the United States and Mexico, which have soured in recent months, will lo
