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Mexico to hire PR firms to scrub drug war image
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Mexico to hire PR firms to scrub drug war image
Mica Rosenberg and Adriana Barrera
MEXICO CITY
Wed Jun 16, 2010 6:47pm EDT
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon is launching a global public relations campaign to try to improve his country's image and neutralize coverage of the violent drug war scaring away tourists and foreign investors.
World | Mexico
Calderon declared all-out war on drug cartels on taking office in late 2006, sending thousands of troops and federal police across Mexico to take on the heavily armed gangs running a multibillion dollar business.
The strategy has so far failed to curb violence and more than 23,000 people have died in drug violence over the past 3-1/2 years. Daily images of gruesome decapitations, charred and tortured bodies hung from bridges and brazen daytime shootouts are commonplace on the front pages of newspapers and evening news broadcasts.
Calderon, a strong-willed conservative, says he is turning to private advertising firms to launch an international image improvement campaign to show the world another, less violent side of Mexico, a country that depends on some 20 million tourists a year to boost its public finances.
"We are promoting a comprehensive advertising project in my government, primarily public relations, and we are hiring the best agencies in the world promote Mexico's image," Calderon said this week during a speech in the northern state of Baja California Sur.
"Yes, we will explain the problems we have, but also how we are facing them. Above all we want to show what our country has to offer, which is a lot," Calderon said.
The campaign, whose cost and other details were not disclosed, will be run out of Mexico's tourism ministry.
The timing of the charm offensive comes as Mexico is heading into local elections on July 4 in almost half of Mexican states and follows one of the worst spikes in violence as drug killings continue to escalate.
Nineteen drug addicts were pulled out of a clinic in northern Mexico, lined up and shot execution style last week. Earlier this week, 10 federal policemen were killed in an ambush in central Michoacan state, with drug traffickers barricading the road with buses to prevent their rescue. That same day 28 prisoners died in a gun battle inside a prison.
Many others have followed, including the killing of five police officers in wealthy Monterrey, once one of Mexico's safest cities, and 15 dead in a shootout with the army in the quaint, colonial town of Taxco in central Mexico.
NOT GIVING UP
In response to the killings, Calderon gave a televised address to the nation on Tuesday saying he will not give up. The attacks show cartels are weakened and fighting among themselves for shrinking smuggling routes, he said.
But public opinion polls say the majority of Mexicans think the drug traffickers are winning the drug war.
Ciudad Juarez, a major manufacturing center near the border with Texas, has become one of the world's most violent cities with 5,500 drug-related killings in just 2-1/2 years. Factories are freezing investment as murders surge.
Analysts say a media campaign is not going to convince serious investors that Mexico is safe for doing business if the country fails to strengthen its institutions.
"The president is convinced that foreign investment is dropping off because of the security situation ... he wants to show a safer Mexico, a more advanced Mexico," Edgardo Buscaglia, a drug trade expert at Mexico City's private ITAM University, told Reuters.
"But the reality is, businessmen are still seeing people decapitated every day, ambushes ... that can't be solved by an advertising campaign," Buscaglia said.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
World
Mexico
Comments
See All Comments (7) | Post Comment
Jun 16, 2010 8:39pm EDT
Good luck to the PR firm they hire.
Over 25000 killed in the last few years. Murdering tourists, & then blaming others for the killings,instead of any investigation. I’m boycotting Mexico, & any sane person should do the same.
There are plenty of other countries to visit in the region. AND A LOT SAFER, & not as CORRUPT!
jerryatric
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Jun 16, 2010 9:19pm EDT
I wish Mexico well on this attempt. I crossed the border on a regular basis in early 2009; if I still lived near the border, I’d cross today. I am moving back to a Border City, San Diego. PR won’t erase the images of murder; nonetheless, I know there are still positive experiences in Mexico, I still have friends living in the northern states. I will be back, I’ll never give up loving Mexico.
Algusto
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Jun 16, 2010 10:04pm EDT
Isn’t that just like a politician… if you can’t actually fix the problem, then find new ways to lie about it or better ways to hide it.
Arley White
ArleyWhite
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Jun 16, 2010 10:12pm EDT
What are PR firms to do? Promote marijuana legalization?
- – -
Google Marc Emery.
Historicus
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Jun 16, 2010 11:44pm EDT
If he pumped that PR money into his own “national guard” then he’d probably get many times free good PR from the results in the world press in regards to the improved security.
avgprsn
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Jun 17, 2010 12:50am EDT
Images? They are worried about their image? This a real problem, not an image issue. Hire a few more soldiers to crack down on the drug warlords!
karimnn
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Jun 17, 2010 1:13am EDT
Good thinking Mex- Get a PR firm to spin that me whitey can come visit, spend money, get a tan and then maybe get my head chopped off. Or better chance getting shot up in a gun battle while waiting in line to buy an orange Fanta. PS don’t forget about the shark attacks, don’t for get to spin that.
theysayitsok
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