Hello I'm James Reynolds. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

In BBC OS conversations we bring people together to share their experiences

and this time conversations from Mexico. The election of a new president, Claudia Shane Baum, is a moment of history.

For the first time a woman will run the country.

Mexicans will tell you that she has an awful lot of work to do.

For many, the first priority is simply to feel safe.

We are afraid, we day, we're afraid of going out and going out with our children.

And I don't anymore, don't know who the trust. Normally on OS conversations, we bring people together from around the world.

And that means, in the most basic way

dialing them up on the phone but this time we did it the old-fashioned way we went to see

them in person so I would like you to join the journey that my colleagues and I made in the

run-up to the country's presidential election. We landed firstly in San Diego, right

in the south of the United States next to Mexico, and then we crossed over into Tijuana on the Mexican

side. We went to Mexico not just to tell the story of that country but because the story of

Mexico explains the story of the United States, its powerful neighbor.

What happens in Mexico, the violence there, the attempts to migrate to the United States,

affects life in the US and it will affect the US presidential election.

Indeed, recent days President Biden has introduced an executive order to remove migrants

entering the US illegally.

We went to see some of those on the Mexican side who want to cross into the states.

There are migrant centers in Tikuan and not far from the border.

I met one of the families who are waiting, a young couple with two daughters,

...