This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, May 1st, 2013.

I'm Caleb Brown.

President Obama goes to Mexico and Costa Rica this week.

He should be talking about ending the destructive American

led war on drugs but neither he nor Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto seem eager to

make strides. Juan Carlos Idago, Project Coordinator for Latin America,

the Cato Institute offers his thoughts.

President Obama in a press conference recently

stated that a lot of the discussion during his trip to Mexico is going to focus on economics.

And certainly that's been the narrative that the new president in Mexico has tried to advance since he came to power in

December 1st. He has engaged in a very radical reformist agenda trying to open up Mexico's monopolies on telecommunications, television, energy, and education.

And certainly President Obama wants to move away from the discussion on security.

He has downplayed the problem of drug trafficking in Mexico since the beginning.

Let's remember that not once has he mentioned

drug violence in Mexico in any of his State of the Union

addresses since he came to power.

So a lot of the discussion is going to focus on the economy and that's going to be the case

to in Central America.

In Central America, the host President Laura Chincilla of Costa Rica has also stated that she

wants to move away from the issue of narco-trafficking and discuss energy and discuss economic development issues.

So I think that that's a mistake.

You cannot ignore the elephant in the room, which is violence in the region.

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