President Obama offered a press conference a few hours ago, and the subject of Mexico came up only at the very end even though Obama will be landing here in Mexico City on Thursday for about 24 hours.

Here is the transcript of his remarks on Mexico, in response to a question from Antonieta Cadiz, a Chilean correspondent. She asked how the U.S. felt about Mexico saying Monday that all future contact with U.S. law enforcement will now go through a single gateway, the Mexican Interior Secretariat:

When it comes to Mexico, I’m very much looking forward to taking the trip down to Mexico to see the new President, Peña Nieto. I had a chance to meet him here, but this will be the first, more extensive consultations and it will be an opportunity for his ministers, my Cabinet members who are participating to really hammer out some of these issues.

A lot of the focus is going to be on economics. We’ve spent so much time on security issues between the United States and Mexico that sometimes I think we forget this is a massive trading partner responsible for huge amounts of commerce and huge numbers of jobs on both sides of the border. We want to see how we can deepen that, how we can improve that and maintain that economic dialogue over a long period of time.

That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be talking about security. I think that in my first conversation with the President, he indicated to me that he very much continues to be concerned about how we can work together to deal with transnational drug cartels. We’ve made great strides in the coordination and cooperation between our two governments over the last several years. But my suspicion is, is that things can be improved.

And some of the issues that he’s talking about really had to do with refinements and improvements in terms of how Mexican authorities work with each other, how they coordinate more effectively, and it has less to do with how they're dealing with us, per se. So I’m not going to yet judge how this will alter the relationship between the United States and Mexico until I’ve heard directly from them to see what exactly are they trying to accomplish.

But, overall, what I can say is that my impression is, is that the new President is serious about reform. He’s already made some tough decisions. I think he’s going to make more that will improve the economy and security of Mexican citizens, and that will improve the bilateral relationship as well.

For nearly a century, foreigners have been holding deeds to land near Mexico’s borders or shoreline. The prohibition came as a result of fear of invasion by land or sea.

Over the past four decades, foreigners have indeed been able to obtain beachfront property but through a bureaucratic process in which they set up a Mexican bank trust. The bank actually holds the deed. Through the trust, the foreigners enjoy basically the same rights as Mexicans.

Now, change is in the air, and it could save money for thousands of American retirees and other foreigners who want to buy their piece of paradise in Mexico.

Two days ago, none other than Manlio Fabio Beltrones, put forth a proposal to amend article 27 of the Mexican constitution.

Beltrones is no ordinary politician. He’s a former governor of Sonora state, a former two-term congressman, a current senator, a perennial big shot of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and even a onetime presidential candidate.

Beltrones, presented the proposal along with another PRI deputy, Gloria Nunez Sanchez, and early signs are that members of the center-right National Action party may get behind it.

But first, a little more history: Mexico had legitimate fears of invasion back during the 1917 Revolution. So the constitution minted then included a blanket ban on foreigners owning land within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of any border or 50 kilometers (31 miles) of any shoreline. This website says the ban includes the entire Baja Peninsula.

Following a 1973 law that regulated creation of trusts, foreigners found a work-around. By paying around $2,000 for a permit and registration in the foreign investment registry, plus up to another $1,000 annually for bank trust administration fees, foreigners could buy land near the coasts and borders.

This has made quite a bit of money for banks.

In his proposal, Beltrones notes that fears of invasion are anachronistic.

“Hand to hand combat is no longer the way to settle disputes, thus the danger has disappeared of allowing foreigners to obtain property,” it says.

The trusts, the proposal notes, have confronted foreigners with “high costs of setting up trusts and fee payments for various registration procedures, assessments, taxes and permits prior to the government authority.”

Some Mexican realtors are already touting the proposed change, apparently eager to increase sales.

But any constitutional amendment is lengthy. Beltrones’s proposal has to be passed by both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, then approved by 17 state legislatures before it becomes law.

Moreover, the proposal would only affect those building housing with "no commercial objectives," and that a ban would remain on foreigners owning "direct dominion over the water." I'm not sure what that means. 

Anyone who knows more about the impact of this proposed change, please post below. Some readers would certainly be interested.

This video is a few months old. It shows an American driver getting stopped in Aguascalientes by a traffic cop who proceeds to tell him his fine comes to 6,400 pesos, or more than $500 US. The cop seems VERY eager to receive the cash immediately. The driver, who doesn't speak Spanish, says he's in a Budget rental car, but the cop insists that he doesn't have the proper "verification" for the car.

Finally, the cop takes some 600 pesos from the driver and tells him to scram.

As the American drives off, he says, "Dude! I just got totally raped by the police, dude! Hola Mexico! Viva Mexico!"

I'm glad he kept his good humor. Makes me recall a time a policeman stopped me outside Tegucigalpa, Honduras. When he saw my rental car contract, he said, "This isn't notarized." I could hardly stop laughing. I told him no auto rental contract is ever notarized. His bristles went up. It was only when I told him I was a journalist and started taking down his name and badge number that he relented.

No one’s had a worse week than the six Spanish tourists who were gang-raped by masked men in their bungalow in Acapulco’s Playa Bonfil early Monday morning. The rapists chugged mescal after assaulting the women.

The case made worldwide headlines on Tuesday _ partly because Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton dismissed the rape initially, saying such attacks happen “anywhere in the world.” In political terms, Walton’s also had a rotten week, deservedly so.

Within a day, Walton held a press conference in which he apologized and begged for federal help in finding the rapists. By several accounts, he wept before journalists. I guess aides advised him that tourism to a city that some call “Narcopulco” would fall even faster off a cliff with news of marauding rapists preying on foreign women.

Female lawmakers from the ruling PRI immediately called Walton a misogynist and demanded further signs of atonement: "There is no room for interpretation, either good nor bad, of this claim that it 'happens anywhere in the world.' This was the cynical and misogynistic statement of someone who holds public office and shames all those from Guerrero state."

Sadly, authorities report no advances in trying to find the culprits.

The headline in Spain’s ABC newspaper today says: “The rape of the Spaniards in Acapulco will remain in impunity.” An accompanying story notes that Acapulco is now considered the second most dangerous city in the world after San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

If nothing else, Walton should get busy trying to change that dubious distinction.

I’ve just returned from a couple of days working in Puerto Vallarta, and can report that I was taken by its charms. I’d landed there a year ago only to drive northwest into Nayarit state.

This time, I explored the city a bit. First off, it’s safe and one can feel that immediately in the loose attitude of Mexicans there. Secondly, Old Vallarta is lovely. In general, city fathers have done well with regulations keeping signs small, keeping the cobblestone streets and making wide promenades, especially along the seafront.

Several things surprised me, though. The few restaurants I tried were great, as good as anything in Mexico City. A very authentic French bistro (La Cigale) near City Hall, where I spent much of the two days, astounded me with the tastiest French onion soup I’d eaten in years.

A lot of resident foreigners dwell in Puerto Vallarta so that has brought plenty of fusion to the cuisine, the shopping, the art, etc. Walking along the Malecon felt like strolling along Venice Beach in California.

I’d heard that Puerto Vallarta is a bit of a gay mecca but didn’t realize how much so it is, truly one of the most open places I’ve seen in Latin America. There are two gay tourist pamphlets on most counters. One I picked up (called Gay Guide Vallarta) said this:

“Vallarta’s gay scene includes a couple dozen gay clubs and bars and 3 beach clubs that from the gay beach area north to just across the river. … The main cluster of gay bars today is an outgrowth of city planning decisions made in the early 1990s. They created a Cabaret Zone, a four block square area where the city fathers wanted the late night entertainment, with its accompanying noise, to be corralled.”

The jungle is verdant both to the north and south of the port. I saw multiple signs for the upcoming Vallarta Bird Festival March 7-10 that draws birdwatchers from far and wide.

I personally prefer the crashing Pacific surf to the gentler Caribbean, and there’s plenty of that outside of Vallarta Bay.

If I appear overly enthusiastic, maybe it’s because I always feel stronger, fitter and more invigorated going from Mexico City’s 7350 feet altitude to sea level. Anyone else notice the difference?

A couple of hours ago, Mexico’s Supreme Court accepted an appeal from Florence Cassez, a Frenchwoman, to free her from prison.

Parts of the court hearing were carried live on television, a sign of how the case had become a lightning rod in Mexico. Cassez, 38, spent the past seven years in jail, accused of being part of the Zodiacos kidnapping gang.

The imminent freeing of Cassez enraged those kidnapped by the Zodiacos, and victims’ rights advocates, too. One of the sign-carrying protesters is seen in the AP photo above. The sign reads: “Freedom for soldiers, not for Florence Cassez.”

A Milenio television reporter interviewed a former kidnap victim, Ezequiel Elizalde, who was held for 60 days, and he sputtered in anger earlier today.

“I’m a Mexican but this is a rubbish of an institution,” he said of the high court. “In the United States, a kidnapper would get the death sentence.”

Cassez was arrested in 2005 at a ranch outside Mexico City where several abductees were found. Her former boyfriend, a Mexican, was involved in the kidnappings but she denied knowledge.

The investigation into her case was riddled with irregularities leading up to her conviction and subsequent 60-year sentence. It led to a diplomatic crisis between Mexico and France in 2011, when then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought to dedicate a "Year of Mexico" cultural event to Cassez. Mexico cancelled the event in anger. I wrote about it at the time.

French Prime Minister Francois Hollande hailed the court ruling: "France thanks all those who, in Mexico as well as here at home, have fought so that truth and justice prevail.”

The case has been an embarrassment to many, including TV journalists who tailed police on what they said was live coverage of the 2005 raid on the gang’s hideout. In fact, it was a re-enactment designed to burnish the image of the police.

"I did not realize that this was a sham,” Carlos Loret de Mola, one of Televisa’s star broadcasters, said this week.

One of the wisest pronouncements today came from Luis Gonzalez Plascencia, head of the capital’s human rights commission.

“We’ll never know if Florence is guilty or innocent,” he said.

Without that knowledge, victims say they have reason to be angry.

Sometimes one writes a story that proves to be a lightning rod for people’s emotions. That is the case with an article I wrote this week about a young U.S. Marine veteran from the Miami area who is in jail in Matamoros, facing up to more than a decade in prison.

The Marine brought an old hunting shotgun into the country after being informed by a Customs and Border Protection agent that he had completed the necessary paperwork. Click here to read the story.

Reaction from fellow Marines has been swift and angry. Here’s one email from a former comrade-in-arms of the man I wrote about, Jon Hammar:

This sank my heart into my stomach. If it weren't for Hammar I wouldn't be alive. We served together in Iraq and he was the one who told me about Pathway Home. I’ve known him for over 8 yrs now and I want to get him back. What do I have to do?! Cause we are pretty close to doing something non diplomatic. ...

 

Another person posted on our website:

Thank you for bringing this situation to the attention of the American public. People should be outraged that Mexican officials can get away with treating America citizens in this manner. No one should travel to Mexico for any reason (nor support the country with tourist dollars) because anyone could easily find themself in a similar situation.

But the reaction was very different in Mexico. Televisa, the television conglomerate, translated my article, and some readers were not sympathetic to the U.S. Marine. Here’s one typical comment:

It's true, he must pay for this crime and not go weeping to be rescued using corruption and influence peddling in our deplorable ‘justice’ system run by those responsible for over 15,000 deaths under Calderon. They sold weapons to corrupt politicians like Felipe Calderon and his entourage of murderers. Just as a Mexican is sent to prison by merely stepping on US soil, it’s also a crime to bring guns to Mexico without permission. They always believe they are so enlightened and cry about anything while Mexicans die and endure all sorts of wrongful convictions on U.S. territory. Don’t be a cry baby and face your sentence like any offender must. Do not break Mexican law. Set an example for others.

 

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Some big cities seem to set their own foreign policy. Miami comes to mind with the fierce anti-Castro bent of its residents. Boston favors all things Irish. Vancouver has a soft spot for mainland China.

Add Mexico City to the list. It’s high on Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, you may have read, paid City Hall here around $5 million and in return got a huge statue of its founder, Heydar Aliyev, placed at the entrance to Chapultepec Park. Another momument went up at Plaza Tlaxcoaque. City Hall’s interest has generated some outcry, particularly among Armenian-Mexicans. Click here for the story I wrote earlier this week.

I never thought upon arriving in Mexico in 2010 that I’d have to research the tense relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, rivals in the South Caucasus region.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise. As a young copyeditor at the newspaper in St. Petersburg, Fla., in the late 1970s, I remember the day the multi-volume complete encyclopedia of Armenia arrived in the newsroom – unsolicited – a sign of the strong Armenian lobby in the U.S.

Even now, one of my McClatchy colleagues, Michael Doyle, who focuses partly on our newspapers in California’s Central Valley, has Armenian issues on his plate constantly. That area is home to many Armenian-Americans.

I just got an email from a spokesman for the Azerbaijan foreign ministry (That’s a sentence I’ll probably never write again!). He was unhappy with my article.

“The so-called public protests you refer to are yet again provocative acts by the Armenian diaspora in Mexico that are sponsored by Mr Sarukhan, due to his Armenian ethnicity. It seems that Republic of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have launched a campaign against Azerbaijani monuments.”

 

I wasn’t at first sure of the reference to “Mr. Sarukhan,” but now assume it is a reference to Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to Washington. The Sarukhan family is prominent. Sarukhan’s father, Jose, a biologist, was rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the largest in Latin America.

It is important to bear in mind that the two monuments do not in any way cause discomfort to the wider public of Mexico City. They are located in places where ordinary people come and rest. The so-called protesters do not represent the wider general public of Mexico City but are a handful of Armenian diaspora based in Mexico. These people can't speak on behalf of Mexico City residents as they don't represent general public. I view this as an intentionally organized PR campaign aimed to damage the friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Mexico.

 

This is a really lovely short video about two American opera professionals who are nurturing opera singers in San Miguel de Allende, the artsy colonial city in central Mexico that is home to many expats. This video is under five minutes long and very professionally and lovingly done. Click here for the Washington Post story that accompanies the video.

Here's a report from Angela Kocherga from Houston station KHOU on Americans in San Miguel de Allende getting ready to cast their ballots. My experience is that expats are as interested or even more interested in U.S. elections than their counterparts back home.