U.S. apologizes for experiment that infected Guatemalans with syphilis

The United States apologized to Guatemala on Friday for a 1940s research program in which Guatemalans were intentionally infected with the sexually transmitted disease syphilis without their knowledge or consent.

Between 1946 and 1948, the agency then known as the U.S. Public Health Service infected Guatemalan sex workers, prison inmates, and mental health patients with syphilis. The program was conducted in order to examine whether penicillin, relatively new at the time, could be used to treat the disease. It was led by John Cutler, the U.S. doctor who later led the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which African American men in Alabama infected with syphilis were observed without receiving treatment.

The Guatemala program was "clearly unethical," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement.

"Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," the statement said. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

Archival research conducted by medical historian Susan Reverby, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, uncovered the Guatemala syphilis experiment. Reverby, who has written extensively on the Tuskegee experiment, found documents on the Guatemala program at a library at the University of Pittsburgh. The professor discovered that the Public Health Service sent Cutler to Guatemala to study syphilis transmission, with the backing of Guatemalan health officials and the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau.

Cutler and Guatemalan doctor Juan Funes induced the disease by allowing prison inmates to have sex with infected prostitutes, or by inoculating the syphilis-causing bacteria in inmates through a solution. The patients, who remained uninformed, were then given penicillin to see if the antibiotic could treat syphilis.

"In addition to the penitentiary, the studies took place in an insane asylum and an army barracks," Reverby said in a Wellesley College release on her work. "In total, 696 men and women were exposed to the disease and then offered penicillin. The studies went on until 1948 and the records suggest that despite intentions not everyone was probably cured."

The Wellesley release has more details. U.S. Health and Human Services has posted an information page on the Guatemala syphilis study at its website.

President Barack Obama called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Friday to apologize on behalf of the United States for the 1940s syphilis program. Colom's government posted a message on its official website condemning the experiment and requesting a full investigation, which the U.S. has promised to carry out.

A separate statement on the government's Facebook page said Guatemala "reserves the right" to further denounce the experiment in an international forum, but did not elaborate.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Credit: Agence France-Presse

Report: Mexico is not Colombia, here's why

Comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comparing Mexico's drug war to a Colombia-style "insurgency" touched off a flurry of debate over the parallels between the two conflicts. Seeking out the facts, L.A. Times foreign correspondents conclude that the secretary's comments were like comparing "apples and oranges."

Here's the full story from Sunday's paper. At issue is whether the U.S. will seek to model the Merida Initiative aid package to Mexico on Plan Colombia, the deal that has supplied Colombia with more than $7 billion in aid to combat rebels and drug traffickers.

In their reporting, correspondent Ken Ellingwood, Mexico City bureau chief Tracy Wilkinson and special correspondent Chris Kraul in Colombia break down the two conflicts into basic areas. Here's the La Plaza summary:

The nature of the foe: Colombia's decades-long conflict with the FARC rebel group and with powerful drug cartels is motivated, at least on the rebel side, by a Marxist ideology aimed at overthrowing the state. In Mexico, the drug war is motivated by the cartels' basic goal of moving narcotics into the U.S. without government interference, and collecting profits.

Territory: At the peak of its power, the FARC controlled a "Switzerland-size chunk" of Colombia's territory, with identifiable borders, plus other land. In contrast, Mexican drug gangs' sway over certain regions of Mexico remains fluid, and there is "no zone the Mexican army cannot reach when it wants."

Targets and tactics: Terrorist-style attacks have occurred in Mexico's drug war (a remote-controlled car bomb in Ciudad Juarez, a grenade attack on civilians in Michoacan) but they have not occurred with the frequency and scope as such tactics in Colombia. The Mexico drug war is mostly a conflict between feuding cartel groups.

State weakness: This is where the line is fuzziest. Colombia had a weakened army when the FARC began attacking the state, but a relatively strong civil society that eventually rose up and demanded solutions. Mexico sent 50,000 troops head-on to combat its drug gangs, but it has so far fallen short in pursuing desperately needed reforms in the justice system, for example, and in money laundering.

What's the proper prescription for Mexico then? One unnamed U.S. official in Mexico told The Times: "Institution building, institution building, institution building."

The U.S. recently signaled it would drastically boost funds to Mexico but held back a fraction of a previously pledged amount over doubts on progress over human rights allegations. Human rights abuses remain the darkest mark on Colombia's advances over the FARC and traffickers, as reported recently by the left-leaning Washington Office on Latin America, in an extensive analysis on Plan Colombia titled "Colombia: Don't Call it a Model."

On the 10th anniversary of Plan Colombia's start, Kraul reports in The Times that the country is more secure and that the military has made advances over the FARC. Still, coca eradication efforts have not been as successful as hoped, and have pushed some cocaine production over to neighboring Peru. Kraul notes that the Colombian military is believed responsible for 3,000 extrajudicial killings between 2002 and 2009.

On Thursday in New York City, U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos over the confirmed death of a major FARC leader in a military operation on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, a mayor in a town in the Monterrey metropolitan area was assassinated late last week, the fourth mayor killed by suspected drug hitmen in the last six weeks, Wilkinson reports. A mayor-elect in Chihuahua state was also shot on Friday and was in critical condition.

In another troubling and slightly Colombia-esque development here last week, a lawmaker-elect with suspected ties to the La Familia drug organization was sworn into office after evading police. The newly sworn-in federal deputy, Julio Cesar Godoy of Michoacan, now has immunity from prosecution.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: The body of Prisciliano Rodriguez Salinas, mayor of the town of Doctor Gonzalez, northeast of Monterrey, Mexico, lays near his truck after gunmen assassinated him on Sept. 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters

Detention centers isolate illegal immigrants and deny them rights, report says

Illegal immigrants held in federal detention centers in the United States are mostly isolated from immigration attorneys and not informed on their rights, a new study finds. The Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center surveyed detention centers nationwide and found that 78% of detainees were prohibited calls to lawyers.

Our story from the Tribune Washington Bureau reports: "More than 80% of detainees were in facilities that were isolated and beyond the reach of legal aid organizations, resulting in heavy caseloads of 100 detainees per immigration attorney, the survey found. Ten percent of detainees were held in facilities in which they had no access at all to legal aid groups."

The full report is available here.

Immigration detention facilities place detainees in isolation, putting their health and life at risk, rights advocates have said. Such findings have been reached by Amnesty International (see the report "Jailed Without Justice") and Human Rights Watch (see the report "Detained and Dismissed").

Numerous cases of deaths inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention system have garnered national media attention. A transgender woman, Victoria Arellano, died in detention in 2007 in San Pedro, Calif., for lack of access to AIDS medications. Picked up at traffic stops or workplace raids, immigrants are detained in any of the 350 federal centers, which are mostly located in sparsely populated areas. Detainees are often transferred far from their attorneys or doctors, and from their homes and families.

Detention and deportation of undocumented migrants in the United States has risen under President Obama, but the ProPublica news organization recently reported that policy is also shifting to reducing deportations of undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes. Obama said during his presidential campaign that comprehensive immigration reform would be one of the top priorities of his first year in office. But the Obama administration has put the issue on the table for lack of reliable support among Republicans in Congress and because of division within the White House over immigration reform.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: The Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga. Credit: Associated Press

Controversial Georgetown gig for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe

The arrival of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at Georgetown University is sparking campus debate on the two-term leader's legacy in security and human rights. Uribe starts work this semester as a "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership" at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, where he will conduct seminars and other programs, the university said.

"We are thrilled that [Uribe] has identified Georgetown as a place where he will share his knowledge and interface with Washington, and I know that our students at the School of Foreign Service will benefit greatly from his presence," said the Georgetown school's dean, Carol Lancaster, in a university statement.

But not everyone in the Georgetown community is reacting with such enthusiasm. In comments on the personal site of university professor Anthony Clark Arend, one commenter identified as Charity Ryerson, a Georgetown law student, wrote:

I am a student at the law center and have worked extensively with the Colombian human rights community. While he was Governor of Antioquia, Alvaro Uribe was instrumental in the creation of the Convivirs, private self defense organizations that later morphed into the Colombian United Self Defense Forces, a paramilitary organization that has killed tens of thousands of Colombian civilians with the support of the Colombian state. As recently as 2006, the paramilitaries and the Colombian military ate together at the same military bases and carried out joint operations.

He routinely publicly denounced human rights defenders in his country, falsely claiming that they had ties to the guerrilla organizations in order to undermine their work. His party continues to work with illegal armed groups in the country, a situation which he, at a minimum, tolerated. He spied on opposition leaders and human rights defenders. His own DAS (similar to the FBI) passed hit lists to the paramilitaries containing names of trade unionists and human rights defenders, many of which were later killed.

And now Georgetown has legitimated him and his legacy by making him a “Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership.” This is an offense to the thousands of victims of his administration, to the human rights community in the US and Colombia, and is an embarrassment to Georgetown University. This decision should be reconsidered.

The commenter added a link to a tough-worded letter the group Human Rights Watch sent to U.S. President Barack Obama over Uribe's human rights record during his government's crackdown on the leftist FARC guerrillas.

Nevertheless, Uribe left Colombia's presidency with a high approval rating, and in June, Colombian voters elected Uribe's chosen successor, Juan Manuel Santos, by a margin of more than 40 percentage points.

"The legacy of Uribe, I think, is huge," said Myles Frechette, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, in The Washington Times. "He restored Colombians' confidence in their own country. He showed them that if the government put its mind to it, it could — with assistance from the United States — beat back the guerrillas."

Colombia is the United States' closest ally in Latin America, receiving more than $7 billion in military aid since the implementation of "Plan Colombia," the equally contested aid agreement that helped Uribe's government in its efforts against drug-trafficking and terrorism.

Santos now takes up pending negotiations to allow the U.S. to use Colombian military bases and for a free-trade agreement between the two countries, which is also being protested on the Georgetown campus.

In addition to his new university job, Uribe will be busy this fall in the U.S. as vice chair of a United Nations panel on Israel's deadly raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla in May.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Alvaro Uribe, former president of Colombia. Credit: Associated Press

U.S. considers boosting funds for Mexico drug war, but holds cash back over rights

The U.S. government is considering substantially increasing funding for Mexico's drug war beyond the $1.4-billion Merida Initiative, Paul Richter reports from our Washington bureau. Citing an unnamed source in the White House, Richter reports that the Obama administration sees its joint anti-drug effort with Mexico as a top priority. 

At the same time, the administration separately announced that Mexico would receive $36 million in already-scheduled funds from the Merida Initiative but that another $26 million was being withheld until "additional progress can be made" on human rights issues in Mexico.

The State Department's report on Mexico was sent to Congress last week but has not been publicly released.

The administration wants Mexico to increase the authority of its National Human Rights Commission and for Mexican soldiers to be prosecuted on human rights charges in civilian courts rather than military tribunals. Soldiers and officers are rarely if ever convicted on such accusations in military courts, even as rights complaints have skyrocketed since President Felipe Calderon launched the army-led campaign against drug-trafficking groups in late 2006.

On Sunday, Mexican soldiers opened fire on a family's car at a highway checkpoint in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, killing a man and his teenage son and injuring five others. The Mexican army is implicated in the shooting deaths of two children in April. In March, a suspected drug gang member was photographed being hauled into the custody of marines one day, then showed up dead on a roadside the next.

Mexico's Interior Ministry said it would be paying the funeral expenses (link in Spanish) of Sunday's shooting victims, citing the military's "error" in the incident.

After last week's announcement about the withheld money, Mexico's Foreign Ministry responded with a measured critique. "Cooperation with the United States against transnational organized crime through the framework of the Merida Initiative is based on shared responsibility, mutual trust and respect for the jurisdiction of each country, not on unilateral plans for evaluating and conditions unacceptable to the government of Mexico," the statement said.

Meanwhile, as promised last year, the governments of the U.S. and Mexico opened a joint office -- the Merida Initiative Bilateral Implementation Office -- in Mexico City. Merida is a three-year program approved by the George W. Bush administration that designates $1.6 billion to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, with the lion's share, $1.4 billion, earmarked for Mexico.

 

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: A Mexican soldier stands guard at a crime scene in Tamaulipas state. Credit: Agence France-Presse

 

 

Report: Mexico's drug war is not working

Is the U.S.-backed drug war in Mexico working? By almost any account or any measure, the answer is no. Though high-ranking authorities on both sides of the border continue to support Mexico's military-led enforcement strategy against the country's powerful drug trafficking cartels, the facts remain stark, L.A. Times correspondents Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood say in a special report published Sunday.

The cartels are stronger, more violent, and transnational. Here are the worrisome highlights from the story:

* More than 28,000 people have been killed since December 2006.

* Mexico's effort has failed to dismantle the networks or significantly slow the flow of drugs. More narcotics are flowing into the United States.

* The availability of methamphetamine in the U.S. has hit a five-year high, while cocaine exports have dropped, possibly due to increased flow to other markets.

* Traffickers may now pose a long-term danger to Mexico's stability. Swaths of the country are now in effect without authority.

* The groups have transformed themselves into broad criminal empires deeply involved in migrant smuggling, extortion, kidnapping and trafficking in contraband.

* Drug gangs are armed with military-class weapons smuggled from the U.S., or weapons left over from U.S.-backed wars in Central America.

* Mexican traffickers have muscled aside competitors to gain control over shipments of most types of illegal drugs in the hemisphere.

* Criminal groups have usurped the government's role as tax collector.

* Traffickers have succeeded in shutting down major operations of Pemex, the state oil company and top source of national income. Traffickers have been stealing oil for years.

* Mexican drug gangs now operate in more than 2,500 cities in the U.S.

In addition to all this, attacks on journalists and human rights workers have skyrocketed, and so have claims of human rights abuses committed by Mexico's military. Still, the administration of U.S. President Obama plans to supply Mexico with more than $1 billion in aid under the Merida Initiative. A recent congressional report warns of lack of oversight on how that aid is spent. Only 9% of Merida Initiative funds have been delivered so far.

Now, the question of whether Mexico should legalize drugs, as former President Vicente Fox now advocates, is in many ways a moot proposal. A legalization of drugs in Mexico would have no effect on the illicit drug trade and market without a concurrent plan in the United States, many experts say.

But don't count on that to happen anytime soon. As the idea floats over both countries this week, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press: "We don't believe legalization is the answer." 

Then ... what is?

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photos: Authorities salute the caskets of seven police officers slain in Tijuana in April 2009. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Former Mexican president: Legalize drugs

Vicente Fox, the most recent former president of Mexico, is calling for the legalization of narcotics. In a post at his personal blog published over the weekend, the former president says: "We must legalize the production, distribution, and sale of drugs." Fox, whose election in 2000 ended more than 70 years of one-party rule in Mexico, argues that legalizing drugs would "strike and break" the economic power of drug-trafficking cartels operating in Mexico.

"We need to break the balance between criminals, markets, transfer routes, and criminal associations sheltered by corruption, intelligently, with much less doses of violence," Fox writes.

He also expresses support for the idea of state police forces to replace municipal police, which are plagued by corruption and often found to collude with organized crime groups. The military, the primary force currently deployed against the cartels, should be withdrawn due to rising allegations of human rights abuses, Fox also argues.

The post, in Spanish, is here. Here's an automated translation into English.

Fox is the immediate predecessor of President Felipe Calderon, who initiated a military-led campaign against traffickers in Mexico that has so far claimed more than 28,000 lives since he took office in December 2006. Under the Merida Initiative, the United States has promised Mexico millions of dollars in aid in its fight against the cartels, and in recent visits to Mexico, President Obama has praised Calderon's military strategy.

In a summit last week on the drug violence, Calderon offered a blunt assessment of the reach and power of the cartels, and said he would be open to a debate on legalization of drugs. His administration later clarified that Calderon is still opposed to legalization.

Both Fox and Calderon are members of the center-right National Action Party and are often singled out for criticism of Mexico's efforts against drug trafficking. Critics point out that drug violence grew under President Fox as a result of his strategy of arresting or killing top cartel leaders, which led groups to splinter and fight violent internal battles for control of drug routes. The violence has only surged under President Calderon, getting worse and worse by the year. Others have openly suggested two consecutive PAN administrations have applied justice unevenly against drug trafficking groups, "favoring" the Sinaloa cartel over its rivals -- despite several recent gains against major Sinaloa cartel figures. Calderon has said all cartels are treated equally in Mexico.

Fox's post over the weekend is not the first time he's publicly supported legalization of drugs in Mexico. He made the same basic argument during a U.S. media interview in May 2009. That year, Mexico quietly decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and LSD.

Fox now joins another former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, in support of some form of legalization of narcotics. Early last year, Zedillo and former leaders of Colombia and Brazil called for a "paradigm shift" in international drug policies.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox. Credit: UC Irvine

From pants-dropping professor ... to president of Colombia?

When voters in Colombia go to the polls to pick a new president on May 30, it is highly likely that the candidate who collects the most ballots will be Antanas Mockus, a former math professor and former mayor of the capital, Bogota. In the race to succeed President Alvaro Uribe, the conservative's heir apparent, Juan Manuel Santos, was once considered a shoo-in. Now the former defense minister is trailing in polls.

How did that happen? Call it a winning combination of voters' desire for something fresh and a Web-savvy campaign. (Now doesn't that sound familiar?)

Mockus is a bona fide maverick, a cerebral intellectual who co-founded the Green Party and is building a political base largely on the themes of decency, ethics and good citizenship -- and by harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter. He's also known for quite a few quirky antics. As rector of the National University, Mockus once dropped his trousers and mooned an auditorium of unruly students. As mayor of Bogota, he'd don a Spandex suit to become "Super Citizen," urging residents to avoid littering, running red lights or indulging "the rude person inside of us."

In a recent Q&A with L.A. Times special correspondent Chris Kraul, Mockus attributed his rise to a knack for "cooperation." The candidate's running mate is the former mayor of Medellin, Sergio Fajardo, who also lined up with Colombia's Greens, as Mockus recounts:

"The alliance with Sergio Fajardo produced an avalanche of public confidence, multiplied by the social networks. Before that, four other candidates and I agreed to abide by a popular vote to represent the Green Party. We understood that alone we weren't relevant. ... Our show of unity communicated itself to Colombians, and something interesting happened. We went from failures as individuals to success within a party."

The outgoing Uribe is leaving office with an approval rating higher than 70%, attributed to his aggressive efforts against the FARC rebel group. Yet analysts say Colombians have also grown weary of scandals and alleged human rights abuses under Uribe, thus giving an opening for a political phenomenon in the form of Mockus, a son of Lithuanian immigrants with an Amish-style beard.

Asked whether he'd continue Uribe's strategy against the FARC, Mockus told Kraul he'd "use television dramas to show the conflict of conscience of the criminal," adding that "art captures injustice in its universality and is a way to teach."

On Thursday, a new poll conducted by the University of Medellin showed Mockus edging out Santos in the final stretch of the race, and winning handily in a runoff with his top competitor.

But don't count Santos out just yet. The blog Lat/Am Daily notes that Uribe's preferred candidate has brought in a "dirty war" campaign strategist to help his flagging numbers, which is certain to make the next few days quite interesting in the race for Colombia's presidency.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Antanas Mockus campaigning for the presidency of Colombia. Credit: Facebook.com

Nice words, but....

Mexicans listening to the speeches in Washington by President Obama and Mexican President  Felipe Calderon on Wednesday and Thursday could be forgiven for thinking the prose bore a familiar ring. Calderon has frequently promised to "work hard" for Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.; Obama has previously assumed "shared responsibility"    for the fight against drug trafficking. Both leaders have roundly condemned the Arizona immigration law.

But will the words translate into concrete action?

"Sorry Mr. Calderon," was the headline (written, pointedly, in English) on El Universal's lead editorial Thursday, which noted that Obama quickly shot down Calderon's plea for immigration reform. Obama said he didn't have the votes in Congress. The editorial (in Spanish, except for the headline) was optimistic that new elements were being introduced into the drug war, such as an emphasis on health, consumption and human rights, but asked, "How can we apply this ability to change [ideas] to other themes that really interest Mexico, like immigration?"

The paper says an intense and deft lobbying campaign by the Mexican government in the U.S. Congress would be necessary. But Raul Benitez,* writing elsewhere in the same paper, warned that "Obama is one thing, members of Congress something else altogether" (link is in Spanish). For all their rote standing ovations Thursday during Calderon's speech, members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, harbor profound mistrust of the Mexican government, says Benitez, an expert on U.S.-Mexican relations at Mexico City's National Autonomous University.

An editorial cartoon (registration required) in Mexico's big Reforma newspaper shows three successive U.S. presidents (Obama, Bush and Clinton) each with one of three successive Mexican presidents (Calderon, Vicente Fox, Ernesto Zedillo). In each case, the U.S. president standing next to the Mexican president du jour says in the exact same words: "Today we initiate a new relationship...."

A group of Mexican human rights organizations, along with their U.S. partners, issued a statement calling for judicial reforms, money-laundering laws, "serious" efforts to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico and other concrete steps.

"We ... are hopeful that our respective presidents will move beyond the empty platitudes that typically characterize such meetings and instead capitalize on this historic visit to make concrete and meaningful commitments to transform the rhetoric of shared responsibility into reality," they said.

Senate President Carlos Navarrete of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party praised right-wing Calderon's "direct and energetic" (albeit divisive) speech before Congress on Thursday.

"Both his own people and outsiders were surprised by the clarity with which he outlined bilateral themes," Navarrete said. "But it is obvious that issues like weapons and immigration can only be dealt with in November, if the Democrats do well then and gain seats [in Congress]. We have to be aware of that and not be asking for something that is impossible."

 

-- Tracy Wilkinson, in Mexico City

 

Photo: Mexican President Felipe Calderon soaks up applause Thursday in the U.S. Congress. Credit: El Universal.

*An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Raul Benitez as Raul Benoite.

 

 

 

Obama hosts Calderon, the pomp and circumstance

 

President Barack Obama welcomed Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the White House Wednesday morning, beginning a day-long visit between the presidents and the two countries' first ladies that culminates in a state dinner Wednesday night.

In the morning welcoming ceremony, as expected, both presidents blasted Arizona's tough illegal immigration law. The immigration issue is sure to be on the agenda, as is trade, drug and weapons trafficking and a lingering dispute over Mexican trucks.

According to the official White House schedule for the day, Obama and Calderon were to hold a 25-minute private meeting in the Oval Office at 10:30 a.m. EDT, followed by an expanded bilateral meeting with the U.S. and Mexico delegations until 11:50 a.m. A brief press conference with the two presidents followed.

Obama is scheduled to hold other meetings while Calderon will have lunch with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to schedules released by officials.

At 6 p.m., President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama once again greet Calderon and Mexico's First Lady Margarita Zavala and take them off for an official portrait to be taken on the White House grand staircase. The state dinner follows, in which both presidents will offer a toast. The evening ends with a reception on the White House south lawn.

After the "crashers" scandal during the White House's last state dinner -- hosting India's prime minister -- officials hope for a smoother event Wednesday night. The chef is Chicago's Rick Bayless, and although details of the menu have not been released, the Associated Press reports that Bayless is at least preparing a black mole sauce for the occasion.

Here is President Obama's official remarks from the arrival ceremony, via the White House. An excerpt:

The United States and Mexico are not simply neighbors, bound by geography and history.  We are, by choice, friends and partners. We are bound by our business partners, workers and tourists who fuel our prosperity; by our students and educators who broaden our horizons; and by our men and women in uniform, who serve and sacrifice to keep us safe.

In the United States, we’re also proud of another bond -- the ties of family: Mexican American families have been here for centuries, as well as those who continue to -- our proud tradition as a nation of immigrants, all of whom strengthen our American family and who join us today.

And here is Calderon's statement (also in Spanish at the president's official site), and an excerpt:

Today, Mexicans and Americans share a decisive moment for our respective countries. We face common challenges of great magnitude: organized crime, economic crisis, climate change, migration. These monumental challenges place us at a crossroads: either we return to mutual recrimination, which has been so useless and so damaging in previous times, or we face and overcome these challenges together, and from there, we begin a new chapter of shared prosperity.

This is the choice: look toward the future, and begin a new era in the strategic partnership between the United States and Mexico based upon shared responsibility.

The two presidents also released a joint statement upon the start of the state visit.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and President Photo: President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and President Barack Obama of the United States, at the start of Calderon's state visit to the White House. Credit: White House