Can Obama and Peña Nieto Clear the Marijuana Smoke?

GUERRERO / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Mexican soldiers burn marijuana plants found amid a field of blue agave in El Llano, Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco State, Mexico.

The drug cartels in Mexico have not gotten any less dangerous . . . as a matter of fact they are even more threatening.

President Obama and Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto already had more than enough on their bilateral agenda. When Peña visits the White House on Tuesday, he and Obama will briefly engage concerns ranging from immigration reform to trade with Asia. But a figurative yet pungent cloud of marijuana smoke may hang over their conversation as well — in the form of this month’s historic decision by voters in the states of Colorado and Washington to legalize pot.

Like a growing number of Latin American leaders, Peña, who takes office Dec. 1, says it may be time to reassess the drug war. In an interview with TIME, Peña has made his first direct remarks on the U.S. marijuana-legalization measures and how they complicate a four-decade-old drug interdiction strategy that has been widely branded a failure in both Mexico and the U.S. “Without a doubt,” Peña said this month during a wide-ranging conversation at his transition headquarters in Mexico City, which TIME will publish later this week, “it opens a space for a rethinking of our [drug-war] policy. It opens a debate about the course the drug war should be taking. It doesn’t necessarily mean the Mexican government is suddenly going to change what it’s doing now … but I am in favor of a hemispheric debate on the effectiveness of the drug-war route we’ve been on.”

A host of Latin American heads of state — including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, one of the Obama Administration’s closest allies in the region — have said much the same thing this year. Some, like Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, have even proposed drug legalization; Uruguay is set to decriminalize marijuana. That trend, aimed at depriving violent drug gangs of part of their narcowealth, reflects growing exasperation with a drug war that is fueled largely by incorrigible U.S. consumption but wreaks its mayhem mostly in Latin America, where Mexico has seen 60,000 drug-related murders in the past six years.

Washington is equally interested in Peña’s raft of proposals for reviving Mexico’s giant but sluggish economy, including a historic plan to allow private investment in its state-run oil industry. “Mexico has proven that it’s a strong electoral democracy,” he says. “Now we have to build a democracy that produces better results.” But restoring public security in Mexico is still his prime mandate. Even so, don’t expect Peña to stump for legal weed during his U.S. visit. “Personally, I’m against legalization,” he tells TIME. “I don’t think it’s the [right] route.” In that regard he and Obama — who, like U.S. federal law, still opposes legalization — are on the same page. The U.S., meanwhile, is extending some $1.5 billion to Mexico in antidrug aid.

Peña does, however, want Obama and the U.S. to know that if legalization has a future beyond Colorado and Washington, Mexico will have to reconsider marijuana interdiction on its own turf. State legalization “creates certain distortions and incongruences, since it’s in conflict with the [U.S.] federal government,” he says. “That will impact how Mexico and other countries in the hemisphere respond.” Among the questions: Should Mexican and other Latin American security forces keep risking their lives busting pot south of the border if it can be accessed legally north of it? And should Mexico itself just go ahead and legalize marijuana if that’s the case?

For his part, Peña, 46, the former governor of central Mexico state, needs to reassure the U.S. as well as Mexicans that his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party — which ruled the country for most of the 20th century as a corrupt one-party dictatorship until it was finally defeated in the 2000 presidential election — has reformed and modernized. Peña, however, comes to Washington at a propitious moment for a Mexican President-elect, with Hispanic voters basking in their new political clout. Obama won re-election on Nov. 6 with a resounding 71% of the Latino vote, and Mexican-Americans account for two-thirds of the U.S. Latino population — a reality that advocates hope will help push immigration reform over the top in Obama’s second administration since Republicans have to attract more of that demographic.

In his TIME interview, Peña salutes the rising Mexican-American leverage: “I believe immigration reform is a commitment of President Obama’s government, especially since it gives him a chance to respond to the great demand expressed by U.S. Hispanic voters.” And it’s one reason Mexico and the U.S. can move beyond the drug war and “start focusing on prosperity issues again,” like Mexico’s participation with the U.S. in Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks. Peña, a mediagenic moderate who is married to Mexican telenovela star Angélica Rivera, is an avid golfer like Obama. The two may well make a future date on the links — and the fresh air might clear the smoke that Colorado and Washington just blew over Mexico-U.S. relations.

Our Family's Hero - Peter Senese: Protecting Children From Abduction

A few months ago I shared with you a story about how the well-known, respected, and interesting author Peter Thomas Senese came into our family's life during the time that my sister Natalie's daughter, my niece Sophia, was about to be abducted to Croatia by the scheme was stopped because of Peter Senese and the I CARE Foundation. 

Tonight, as I think about the wonderful day I spent with my niece, I would like to thank Peter Senese for all he did for our family, and equally, the relentless help he provides so many other families.

So I would like to share this short message: Peter, thank you for your friendship. Thank you for caring. And thank you for standing up to abductors around the world the way you do. Today, I had another wonderful day with Sophia. Can't imagine what our life would be like without her.

Thank you, friend.

Ray

NYC Marathon Runners Find Their Own Way to Run — and Give Back

New York City Marathon runners carry relief supplies through a damaged neighborhood in Staten Island, N.Y., Nov. 4, 2012.

Fortunately in years past I've had the great pleasure of watching the NYC Marathon and found it motivating and energizing to the city, however, this year I was even more impressed when I heard about the runners that decided to pitch-in and help the victims of Hurricane Sandy instead of letting the disappointment of not running in the marathon get them down. What a great show of citizenship!

On Friday evening, with slightly more than 36 hours to go before the 2012 ING New York City Marathon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg canceled the annual event, amid criticisms the runners would be siphoning off valuable resources needed in the city’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy. But the decision hardly discouraged a group of nearly 1,300 runners from boarding the Staten Island Ferry toward the starting line. Far from anticipating a grueling 26.2-mile run, however, these would-be racers ran their own marathon, carrying garbage bags and backpacks full of donated supplies ranging from blankets to Home Depot gift cards that they delivered to the destroyed homes of Staten Island residents.

“I’ve run the marathon three times, and there was an odd familiarity getting on the Staten Island Ferry this morning with a group of runners for a completely different reason,” says runner and New Yorker Jon Bennion. “It was fascinating, the anxiety and jitters were replaced by an overwhelming sense of community.”

The group, organized over Facebook by Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports-medicine physician at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery, met early Sunday morning and divided into groups to run the supplies to the most severely damaged neighborhoods on the island. Metzl, who carried a backpack filled with batteries, says he had expected about 300 runners, but was surprised by the overwhelming number of volunteers who showed up.

“It is one of the most compelling things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Metzl says. “Part of the myth of this whole thing was that runners were callous to the suffering and just wanted to run their marathon. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

On a bright, sunny day with cool temperatures perfect for racing, the runners disembarked from the ferry with a kickoff cheer, but it didn’t take long before the route transformed into a somber reminder of why city councilmen and New Yorkers suffering power outages and flood damage vehemently argued the marathon should not continue.

“All of a sudden, we turned a corner and everyone was cleaning out their basements. Sidewalks were gone, replaced by sinkholes,” says Emily Snyder, an avid runner who discovered the New York Runners in Support of Staten Island group online. “People were cleaning out all their stuff by the handful. The gas lines are astronomically long. It’s shocking.”

Metzl and a group of runners completed a 15-mile route, distributing supplies along the way and then stopped to clear out the home of Alexandre Bersenev and his wife near Midland Beach. “We walked into his house, and there was a disgusting, rotting smell from all their furniture and books. It looks like someone exploded a bomb inside the house,” says Metzl. “We have a runner from England and a runner from Scotland who came to New York to run their first marathon and found out about this over Twitter. They’ve never even heard of Staten Island, and for them to come out here and spend the day cleaning this man’s home is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

This year’s race would have marked Metzl’s 30th marathon, but he says the cancellation was unsurprising given the wreckage. “It wasn’t even a question to come here,” he says. “This is the right thing to do. It’s more gratifying than any run I have ever done.”

Homeowner Alexandre Bersenev, who moved to Staten Island from Russia in 1992, says Staten Island residents were aware of the controversy surrounding the marathon, and he’s thankful for the aid. “It’s awful, my home is an absolute disaster. The runners removed so much debris, and they did it smiling. I am really touched.”

For those who didn’t join the impromptu relief run, thousands who had planned to complete the marathon for their respective charities lapped Central Park for an equally spontaneous way to creatively complete the 26.2 miles they would have run through the city’s five boroughs.

The finish line arch was still standing, and although gates and security guards prohibited runners from crossing under the signage, thousands veered around the blockades, leaning as close to the arch as the barriers would allow to take celebratory photos under the “Finish” sign.

“It would’ve been nice if they had opened the finish up for us,” says New Zealand runner Neil Anderson, who raised $200,000 for Catwalk, a charity supporting spinal-chord-injury research with 28 other runners. “I think the organizers were in a very difficult situation; it’s very understandable, but it’s hard on such a nice day like this.”

“Someone forgot to tell all these runners the marathon was cancelled,” says Toni Rooney as her daughter Jessica ran by on the first lap of her customized version of the marathon. Jessica’s parents traveled from Orlando to watch Jessica run her first marathon.

“She trained all year and was hysterical it was cancelled, but this is a really happy and special day,” says Jessica’s father, Tim Rooney. “Bloomberg should be here.”

Thor Gudjonsson, who finished four 6-mile laps around the park followed by an additional 2.2-mile loop with five other teammates from Iceland, says they wished the race was canceled earlier, before they made the trip. “However, we completely understand why it was cancelled,” says Gudjonsson. “We didn’t realize how severe the damage was until we got here.”

There won’t be any official winner of the 2012 New York City Marathon, and no official times recorded for the thousands who trained for the event as a personal challenge. But thousands of runners proved you don’t need official timekeepers to make a marathon worth running.