Obama blames drugs for part of US-Mexico problems (+video)

Obama blames drugs for undermining US-Mexico ties. President Barack Obama argued deepening economic ties in Latin America would help the US control illegal immigration, and Latin American countries control drug and gang violence.

President Barack Obama, concluding a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, is cheering Mexican economic advances and pressing other Central American leaders to deal with poverty and security while reaching out to a politically powerful Latino audience back home.

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Boosted by reassuring jobs numbers, Obama is calling for greater trade and economic cooperation with the US's southern neighbors, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drug and gang violence and, by extension, to the illegal immigration that the US is seeking to control.

In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama also made the case that deepening economic ties with the Americas means more jobs in the United States.

"One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world," he said. "That includes our neighbors to the south."

During the trip Obama has tried to modulate the exercise of US influence. He has refused to insert himself in Mexico's strategy for confronting narcotrafficking, even if it means more limited access by US security officials to Mexican law enforcement. In Costa Rica, he urged Central American leaders to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and confront the violence in the region.

"As governments, our job is to make sure that we're doing everything we can to provide security and opportunity and ladders for success and prosperity for our people," he told the regional leaders at the start of a dinner Friday. "Economic growth that creates jobs, security for people so that they can be safe in their own neighborhoods, and development that allows people to live in dignity."

On Saturday, Obama was scheduled to speak and takes questions at a meeting at a forum in San Jose on economic growth and development.

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Obama blames drugs for part of US-Mexico problems (+video)