Mexico is vast and progressive democracy, with a growing economy, and as a result you cannot compare what is happening in Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago.

President Obama: "Mexico is vast and progressive democracy, with a growing economy, and as a result you cannot compare what is happening in Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago."

A President just for being President cannot be held responsible for assertions that openly conflicts with the reality or history.

While Mexico has recently (last 20 years) engaged in multi party democracy, it spent decades using the model of a one party rule, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). For decades, Mexico was in effect as democratic as many easter European countries and its system was approved by "very democratic regimes" such as Fidel Castro's in Cuba. On the economy, if it not were by the advantage of sharing thousands of miles with the world largest market, we would see another Mexico, incapable of competing with the likes of Central America, Brazil, Colombia, etc.

On the other hand, Colombia is the longest continuous democracy in South America, forged on the likes of Bolivar and Santander (Man of the laws, as they call him in Colombia). It has valiantly confronted a guerrilla war which for decades faced alone (US help is only recent) and its people have a culture based on religious principles and hard work. This latter assertion can be simply appreciated by comparing Venezuela and Colombia finances; the former with incredible revenues from oil exports and terrible financial grades, and the latter, a formidable economy that produces just about anything and that supplies Venezuela with about 2 billion in basic goods every year.

So I guess President Obama could be right, you just can't compare Mexico with Colombia, not only now, or 20 years ago, or a 100.