MEXICO CITY - Their presidential husbands establish official policy and formally pledge bilateral cooperation, but first ladies are often the ones who can most effectively draw attention to issues, Mexico's first lady said Thursday.
Margarita Zavala spent three days visiting schools and museums in Mexico City with U.S. first lady Michelle Obama. While they weren't talking about Mexico's rampant drug violence or the 275,000 Mexicans deported from the U.S. last year, it was clear the children's and family programs they highlighted could help resolve such grim and entrenched problems.
"There are some issues which we (the first ladies) are freer to choose to address, like working with children and young people," Zavala told The Associated Press during an interview at the presidential residence.
President Obama and his top Cabinet officials have repeatedly visited Mexico to underscore their shared responsibility for violence stemming from drug trafficking, but Mrs. Obama and Zavala are pressing for social programs that, in the end, may present more subtle and effective solutions.
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"Attending to the lack of educational and employment opportunities in Mexico would be important measures to stem immigration and the number of young people that enter into the drug trade," said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy in the region.
Meyer said key elements of violence-prevention programs include items the first ladies have pressed for: providing alternative educational and recreational opportunities, counseling services and job training for young people.
"If young people don't have an alternative in their lives, whatever country they're in, they're going to choose drugs; they're going to choose (the) drug trade. That's the way they make money," Mrs. Obama said after a speech to several thousand young people during her first international trip alone as first lady.
Beyond their shared ideals, Zavala and Mrs. Obama also appear to be developing a personal friendship - the two laughed together and chatted cheerfully at various events.
"We are both convinced that the more we can pursue this friendship, the better it will be for the relationship between our people," Zavala told the AP.
Finding common ground has been easy for the two women: They're both well-educated lawyers who left their professional lives to back their husbands' political careers and raise their young children. The Obamas have two daughters: Sasha, 8, and Malia, 11. Zavala and Mexican President Felipe Calderón have three children: Juan Pablo, 7; Luis Felipe, 10; and Maria, 13.
"Of course we talk about professional issues, but we also talk about how we help our children cope," Zavala said. "We both consider stability in our family as essential, both for the family and for the president."
Family stability and positive opportunities for young people are the messages both first ladies stressed during Mrs. Obama's two-day visit to Mexico.
Since her husband took office, Zavala has been advocating for improvements in the plight of thousands of Mexican children who immigrate alone to the U.S. in search of their parents. She said 50,000 children are deported back to Mexico every year, including 22,000 who travel unaccompanied by adults. Some never find their parents, she said.
