On April 16nth, Mexico’s political class and press nearly forgot their so dear addiction to mutual slaughter and focused entirely in the visit of Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.

The Obamania among the political elite came to such a high point that the representatives of the smaller parties at the Congress threw a mayor tantrum when they where un-invited to a diner with the american president.

Yes, you’re right. Barack’s visit has raised huge hopes, but it requires nothing more than a small memory exercise to remember that likely expectations emerged during the travel of George W. Bush to Vicente Fox’s ranch in San Cristobal, Mexico, more than eight years ago.

Back then, it was all about friendship & good wishes. However, later on, all those dreams evaporated on thin air and which started as a warm relationship become a harsh give-and-take. At the end of the day Fox complained because he only got pats on the back from the Americans (and the Bush administration could rightly answer that they were stabbed by their Mexican colleagues)

The migratory “whole enchilada” turned to be only an “enchilada” for the Mexican government, who appealed to a cheap soap opera attitude to complain about “el muro de la verguenza” (the wall of shame). Meanwhile, immigration reform was caught in the traps of Washington’s surrealistic politics, and everything remained the same.

Now, Calderon’s big issue is the cooperation in the fight against the drug cartels and, despite last week’s heartwarming signs, it is highly likely that the Fox-Bush scenario will be replayed now by Barack & Calderón. We’ll go, once again, from the illusion to the disappointment, from the happy fantasy to the sad reality.

The problem is that the real obstacle doesn’t lay on the personality of the presidents in turn, but on the very dynamic of the bilateral relationship, that is completely upside down.

Our countries share two main big problems: illegal aliens & drug traffic. We want the Americans to solve the first of them by passing a comprehensive immigration reform (by the way no one clearly seems to know what “comprehensive” means in this case) and they want us to defeat the drug lords. It should be the other way around.

Even though both issues are common and both present symptoms in the two countries, the illegal immigration is, deep down, a Mexican problem and the drug traffic an American one.

Let’s stop fooling ourselves. Millions of Mexicans are illegally crossing the border and the minimum act required of a decent government in light of a situation like that is to prevent its citizens from breaking the law (we are, by the way, quite proactive to arrest and ill-treat those Central-Americans who get surreptitiously into our own country).

The real cause of shame is not that the “gringos” are building a wall to prevent us from get in the U.S., but that we Mexicans haven’t been able to generate the jobs that our people needs. On the contrary, we send them to risk their lives in the border, just to keep or finances afloat.

Any immigration bill approved in the U.S. will be 100% useless if, here in Mexico, we don´t pass the main reforms needed to boost our economy. The solution to the problem is not there. It’s here.

Something similar (but backwards) happens with the war against drug traffic. The Americans want for Mexico to neutralize the cartels, but this is just impossible, mainly because the true drug lords and the more powerful mobs are not in our country. They live (and thrive) in the United States.

Mexico’s drug market has an estimated worth of 25 thousand million dollars, while its American counterpart is more than 10 times bigger. So, you don’t need the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes to understand that the lion’s share of the money isn’t fleeing into some lost town in Sinaloa. On the contrary, it stays in the main economic centers: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, et al.

Do you really want to meet the true moguls of the drug business? Don’t look for them among the Mexicans dressed in jeans, folkloric shirts and cowboy hats. You’ll find them on the luxurious penthouse of a skyscraper, attired with sober designer-made suits and fancy portfolios. In other words, the solution of the problem is not here, is (in any case) in the U.S.

If our countries insist of denying these mere truisms, we’ll keep a relation of (very) distant neighbors, while the mutual mistrust deepens and our problems get worse. It’s happening.