Ambassador Wayne’s Remarks at a Reception for Beat Journalists

January 11, 2012 *As Prepared for Delivery*

Muy buenos dias.  I am very pleased to welcome you today.  It is an honor for me to have all of you here and let you know how much I value the work you do. 

As many of you know, I was a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor for two years in the late 1980s.  That experience strengthened my appreciation of your work and my awareness of the pressures and dangers under which you operate.  In fact, I found my work as a journalist as the most enjoyable job I have had.  I really value the role of journalists to keep the citizenry well-informed on the vital issues involving government, the economy, the environment and many other topics. You and your colleagues play a vital role in any democracy.  We depend on an open and free press to monitor and report on what is happening in our communities, so that we can make reasoned judgments about our leaders, and in other countries so we can urge our leaders to be responsible world players. 

I arrived in Mexico just four months ago, and I am very much impressed by the vigor and vibrancy and competitiveness of Mexican media. I am challenged each morning to get a good taste of your reporting. And I know this is a very challenging time, when criminals have taken steps to silence and/or influence some of your colleagues.  I note that the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) indicated the other day that “all the attacks, threats, intimidations and persecutions that they suffer inhibit and limit freedom of expression.” 

For some time now, my Embassy colleagues have been working with Mexican NGOs and media organizations to enhance the security of journalists working in violent situations by providing speakers and training on the basics of protection.  Safe practices for reporting have been updated to include internet tools and ensuring online security for e-mail, databases, and cell phones.  Journalists participating in one program created a website to share information on dealing with sources, security protocols, and risk reduction.  

And now, the Embassy is working with the Mexican government and civil society to protect journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico.  This will entail a $5 million cooperative agreement over four years with Freedom House to provide support for Mexican efforts to strengthen their capacity to protect journalists, including the Secretariat of Government’s journalist protection mechanism and the National Human Rights Commission.  We are also supporting civil society’s capacity to monitor efforts by the Government of Mexico to provide tools and emergency support to protect at-risk journalists. 

Let me say a few words about the relationship between the United States and Mexico.  It is one of the most important relationships that the United States has any place in the world.  The reasons for that are obvious.  We share a continent, we share a future, and we share a responsibility to overcome the challenges facing the people of both of our nations.  Over the last four months, I have met with President Calderon and members of his team, and we have discussed ways to deepen our economic partnership, to take on challenges to citizen security, to improve opportunities for people to people exchanges, and to work together on regional and global issues of importance to both countries. 

Under the Merida Initiative, we are working together to provide security for citizens and communities on both sides of the border.  We share the responsibility to counter violence fueled by drugs.  As Americans, we have to be honest about that responsibility and about the ways in which our drug consumption and the illicit flow of money and weapons across our southern border contributes to the enormous challenge that we both face.  We also have to be honest about the fact that neither of us can solve these problems alone.  We have to work together.  In the United States we are working to reduce the demand for drugs, to halt the illicit flow of money and arms across our borders, as well as to address the tremendous economic and social costs of drug abuse in the United States. Across Mexico, we are supporting Mexican efforts to stem the flow of potential recruits for the cartels by giving young people constructive legal alternatives to activities that only devastate their communities. 

Of course, nobody is fighting harder for Mexican communities than the people of Mexico.  We commend the efforts of those Mexican heroes who carry out operations against cartel leaders at considerable personal risk.  We want to support their success.  I am very pleased that we were able last year to fulfill President Obama’s pledge to deliver $500 million of equipment and training, bringing our total deliveries under the Merida Initiative to almost $900 million.  And I am confident that deliveries will continue until we meet or exceed our original $1.4 billion commitment.  We work closely with Mexican officials to train thousands of law enforcement professionals.  Aircraft we have provided will help Mexican authorities act rapidly anywhere in Mexico against organized crime. Cooperation between our law enforcement and justice organizations, including two-way exchanges of intelligence information, are helping tackle the top levels of criminal organizations and bring their leaders to justice. 

Finally, I want to acknowledge Mexico’s constructive role as a regional and global leader.  Mexican leadership has been instrumental in many settings such as the Global Climate Change meetings in Cancún in 2010.  We look forward to more success when leaders address pressing economic issues at the G-20 summit in Mexico this year.  For our part, I know that President Obama is also looking forward to seeing President Calderón, with whom he's already met six times. 

This is a very wide-ranging relationship of enormous consequence, on both sides of the border.  I look forward in this New Year to doing all that I can to strengthen this relationship -- and to a fruitful year of learning more about Mexican society, politics, and culture through your reporting.  I very much want to maintain an open and fluid dialogue with you.  In that connection, let me make a pitch to all of you to take full advantage of the Embassy’s press section and the research librarians Benjamin Franklin Library as resources to answer your questions. 

Again, thank you for joining us today, and I wish you all a successful and prosperous New Year.