OBAMA TO OFFER SOLIDARITY TO MEXICO IN DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON - Confronting a security threat on America's doorstep,
President Barack Obama is venturing into the heart of Mexico. His
swift diplomatic mission is meant to show solidarity with a neighbor -
and to prove that the U.S. is serious about halting the deadly flow of
drugs and weapons. During his stop in Mexico City on Thursday, Obama
will emphasize cross-border cooperation and probably put a focus on
clean energy, but the economic crisis and the bloody drug trade have
set the tone. Among the other touchy points are disagreement over a
lapsed U.S. assault weapons ban, a standoff over cross-border trucking
and immigration. The escalating drug war in Mexico is spilling into
the United States and onto Obama's lap as a foreign crisis much closer
than North Korea or Afghanistan. Mexico is the main hub for cocaine
and other drugs entering the U.S.; the United States is the primary
source of guns used in Mexico's drug-related killings.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's aggressive stand against drug
cartels has won him the aid of the United States and the prominent
political backing of Obama - never as evident as on Thursday, when the
popular U.S. president is sure to stand with Calderon on his own turf
and note his courage. "It is meant to send a signal of respect," Obama
senior foreign policy aide Denis McDonough said of Obama's overnight
visit.

Mexico is the only place Obama is visiting on his way to the
two-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of
the Americas, a gathering of Western Hemisphere nations.

"It will do a great deal in terms of symbolism to raise the profile of
the relationship in both cases," said Andrew Selee, director of the
Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Mexico in
drug-related violence since Calderon's stepped-up effort against the
cartels began in 2006. The State Department says contract killings and
kidnappings on U.S. soil, carried out by Mexican drug cartels, are on
the rise too. A U.S. military report just five months ago raised the
specter of Mexico collapsing into a failed state with its government
under siege by gangs and drug cartels.

It named only one other country in such a worst-case scenario:
Pakistan. The assertion incensed Mexican officials; Obama's team
disavowed it. Indeed, the Obama administration has gone the other
direction, showering attention on Mexico.

In words that resounded loudly in both countries, Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Mexico City that the U.S. shared
responsibility for the drug war. She said America's "insatiable
demand" for illegal drugs fueled the trade and that the U.S. had an
"inability" to stop weapons from being smuggled south.

Obama has dispatched hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech
surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, to the Southwest to help
Mexico fight drug cartels.

He sent Congress a war-spending request that made room for $350
million for security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

He added three Mexican organizations to a list of suspected
international drug kingpins.

He dispatched three Cabinet secretaries to Mexico. And he just named a
"border czar." "This is something that we take very seriously, and
we're going to continue to work on diligently," Obama said of the drug
violence at a news conference last month.

The Justice Department says such Mexican drug trafficking
organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the
United States. The White House is vowing more enforcement of gun laws.
But it is not pursuing a promise Obama made as a candidate: a ban on
assault-style weapons. That ban on military-style guns became law
during the Clinton administration in 1994 but expired under the Bush
administration in 2004. When Attorney General Eric Holder raised the
idea of reinstituting the ban this year, opposition from Democrats and
Republicans emerged quickly. Reopening the debate on gun rights is
apparently a fight the White House does not want to take on right now.

"I think that there are other priorities that the president has,"
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week.

Mexican leaders, though, say the ban saved lives. "I think it was very
good legislation," Calderon told ABC News the day before Obama's
arrival. The swooning economy, blamed largely on failures inside the
United States, has taken a huge toll on Mexico. About 80 percent of
Mexico's exports - now in decline - go to the United States.

Obama and Calderon are likely to tout the value of that trade, but a
spat between their countries remains unresolved. Mexico has raised
tariffs on nearly 90 American products, a retaliation for a U.S.
decision to cancel access to Mexican truckers on U.S. highways despite
the terms of a free trade agreement.

On immigration, Obama is expected to make clear he is committed to
reforms. The effort is likely to start this year but won't move to the
top of his agenda.