February 09, 2008

Felipe Calderon Feb. 2008 U.S. visit: Eliot Spitzer, Blagojevich, Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa, Fabian Nunez

Mexico's president Felipe Calderon will be visiting parts of their former territory next week, stopping in New York, Boston, Chicago, Sacramento, and Los Angeles but apparently avoiding Washington DC.

In addition to U.S. officials, and some who are supposedly U.S. officials, he'll probably also be meeting with community leaders, such as those from non-profits, "hometown associations", the leaders of his PAN party who operate inside the U.S., and the like. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find a listing, but if anyone could leave information in comments that would be quite helpful.

In addition to addressing the California legislature, some people he's known to be meeting with are:

* U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
* New York governor Eliot Spitzer
* Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich
* California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
* Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
* Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (private meeting)

UPDATE: According to this:

...officials said he'll meet with Mayor Richard Daley, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other leaders... ...includes a private meeting with some Mexican community leaders at McCormick Place... ..."We will be there making our proposals to him in what we expect to be a sincere dialogue," said Salvador Pedroza, chairman of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and leader of the Illinois chapter of Calderon's National Action Party... In the afternoon, Calderon is expected to attend a town-hall-style meeting at Little Village High School on the Southwest Side.

...After Calderon met privately with Blagojevich, officials announced an agreement for a teacher's exchange program that would send Mexican educators to Illinois to help teach math, natural sciences, Spanish and other subjects in local classrooms.

"It's very important that we recognize the contributions Mexico has made to Illinois and the United States, by strengthening our mutual bond and improving the quality and scope of Mexican culture in Illinois," Blagojevich said in an e-mailed news release.

Please indict him already.

UPDATE 2: His first meeting was at the Council of the Americas, with their honorary president David Rockefeller. Then, it was off to meet Eliot Spitzer (presidencia.gob.mx/prensa/?contenido=33715); Calderon congratulated him for his "efforts... to provide Mexican migrants with access to public education and health services as well as to guarantee their work rights". Then, a private meeting with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, and he also spoke at Harvard, with Deval Patrick, and with the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. In Chicago he met with mayor Richard M. Daley and with Blago. He even met with Jesse Jackson. All that and much, much more here.

Posted to Immigration2008a at February 9, 2008 07:43 PM