McCain Winds Up Latin Trip in Mexico
From the white roses he laid before a likeness of Mexico’s blessed saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, to the endorsement he gave for an overhaul of American immigration laws, Senator John McCain used a visit to Mexico on Thursday to appeal to residents of both sides of the border: Mexicans and, more urgently, their voting relatives and other Latinos in the United States.
“We must secure our borders and then we will address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform,” Mr. McCain said at a news conference in a helicopter hangar that was interrupted by the deafening sound of a heavy rainstorm that made his remarks unintelligible.
Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has faced criticism from some of his fellow Republicans for spending time in Colombia and Mexico just as the general election battle heats up, but his campaign officials feel that the trip could resonate among voters back home by promoting his support of free trade, while highlighting his immigration views during his time in Mexico.
Mr. McCain spoke in the enormous, gleaming command center for Mexico’s federal police, which opened last month and serves as a symbol of the country’s efforts to crack down on a drug trade that is growing increasingly bloody and threatening to Mexicans.
In a sign of the tight security in the high-crime Ixtapalapa neighborhood, which Mr. McCain visited, police officers working the perimeters were not told whom they were protecting.
Mexicans have become inured to reports of daily drug violence, but the day Senator McCain arrived, Wednesday, was particularly gruesome: Four decapitated bodies were found near a threatening message against one of Mexico’s top drug lords in the northern city of Culiacán, where the battle over drugs has centered.
Mr. McCain met privately with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico at Los Pinos, the presidential residence. Mr. Calderon, even in public, has become a blunt critic of American policies he sees as counter to Mexican interests, strongly criticizing the border wall that has gone up under the Bush administration and the focus on criminalizing migrants.
Mr. McCain’s previous emphasis on the need for revamping American immigration laws is far more in line with Mexican public opinion than his new emphasis on first cracking down on illegal border crossers.
Mr. McCain, who flew to Phoenix on Thursday afternoon, was in Mexico on the third and final day of a Latin American tour intended to promote himself as a seasoned foreign policy hand compared with Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The trip also showed Mr. McCain in touch with Latinos and Catholics, two key voting blocs in the fall election.
During the tour of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mr. McCain was blessed by Msgr. Diego Monroy, the rector. For several minutes, the monsignor had one hand on Mr. McCain’s forehead and another on his shoulder as he offered the blessing.
Later, Monsignor Monroy told Mexican reporters that he was certainly not picking sides.
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Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm under