This March 25th and 26th Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make her first official visit to Mexico. Then, on April 16th and 17th President Barack Obama will follow up with a visit to "discuss issues ranging from immigration and security to the global financial crisis" with Mexican president, Felipe Calderón. The visits come amidst an internal security crisis in Mexico and as disputes over trade issues emerge between the two governments.

Violence related to narcotics trafficking and the nationwide military mobilization designed to crack down on it have exploded since President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006, resulting in more than seven thousand deaths since the beginning of 2008.

"The consequences of the failing 'drug war' policy are now too horrific to ignore," says Ted Lewis, Mexico Program Director for Global Exchange. "Yet despite their failures, the drug war advocates are still imposing their flawed analysis and approach to the forces that are tearing Mexico apart.

"What we need, says Lewis, "is a fundamentally different approach to reducing illegal demand for drugs coming north and guns going south. Rather than rely on a compromised Mexican military to do a job it is ill equipped for, we must unplug demand through rational decriminalization and universally available treatment for addicts on both sides of the border."

###

Ted Lewis worked with Mexican Human Rights and Democracy organizations for two decades. He led hundreds of international observers covering eight Mexican Presidential and regional elections since 1994. He also organized hundreds of international volunteers that accompanied Mexican human rights observers and communities threatened by Army and paramilitary actions. He coordinated the publication of Always Near, Always Far: The Armed Forces in Mexico, a groundbreaking publication that gave a platform to dissident generals from Mexico's Army as well as critical voices from Mexican civil society.

Since 2006, Ted has led a project to highlight the causes of economic conditions in Mexico drive excessive migration and disadvantage workers throughout North America. In 2008, he edited The Right to Stay Home: Alternatives to Mass Displacement and Forced Migration in North America, a collection of essays critiquing both Mexican and U.S. economic and immigration policies. To read this report online visit: www.globalexchange.org/the-right-to-stay-home.