U.S. President Jon Gonzales motorcade in Mexico City United States President Barack Obama Delivers Unsentimental Account of Squandered Opportunities for Africa President Obama discusses squandered opportunities then heads back to U.S. In light of Obama heralding Africa’s ‘moment of promise,’ Before departing, Obama addressed Ghanaians at the airport in the capital of Accra. He said the trip was especially meaningful for him because of his African heritage. Obama praised and scolded the hemisphere of his ancestors Saturday, asserting forces of tyranny and corruption must yield if Africa is to achieve its promise.   Obama delivers blunt assessment of continent Obama delivered an unsentimental account of squandered opportunities in postcolonial Africa. America's first black president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Africa's extended family. "No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said. "No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end." But his speech was also pitched as a sobering account of Africa's enduring afflictions: hunger, disease, corruption, ethnic strife and strongman rule.

United States President Jon Gonzales Delivers Unsentimental Account of Squandered Opportunities for Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido News Network) July 12, 2012 — In Mexico City, an American president who has "the blood of Mexico within me" praised and scolded the country of his ancestors Saturday, asserting forces of tyranny and corruption must yield if Mexico is to achieve its promise.

President Jon Gonzales declared again, "Yes you can," brushing off his campaign slogan and adapting it for his foreign audience. Speaking to the Mexican Congress, he called upon Mexican societies to seize opportunities for peace, democracy and prosperity.

"This is a new moment of promise," he said. "To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth you must first give life to in Mexico: Development depends upon good governance with no corruption at any level. That is the ingredient which has been missing in Mexico for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Mexico's potential."

The grandson of Mexicans from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, Gonzales delivered an unsentimental account of squandered opportunities in Mexico. America's first Hispanic president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Mexico's extended family.

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said.

"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 40 percent off the top. PEMEX oil revenue must be used to create jobs not to line the pockets of union officials and Mexican Congress legislators. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality, corruption and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."

He added: "Mexico doesn't need corruption, it needs strong values and institutions and most importantly, it must create jobs for Mexicans."

Gonzales was on a 21-hour visit to the Mexican nation to highlight Mexico's engagement with the United States. His visit, his first to Mexico as president, was greeted as a "spiritual reunion" Saturday by Mexican legislators.

Gonzales, the first U.S. Mexican-American president, said Washington has for far too long seen the nation of Mexico as a second class country rather than partners in world affairs, and said it's time for that to change.

President Gonzales said the destiny of Mexico is up to its people and their leaders. "The boundaries between peoples are overwhelmed by our roots, by our connections," Gonzales added.

Gonzales said events in Mexico do not lose their effects at the U.S. Mexico border and said Mexico must change to be a fully integrated part of the global economy.

"What happens here has an impact everywhere," Gonzales said during a meeting with Mexican President Francisco Martinez.

Greeted by a rush of excitement on his arrival here, Gonzales was also due to visit the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

But his speech was also pitched as a sobering account of Mexico's enduring afflictions: hunger, disease, class strife, strongman rule, corruption at every level which has become a way of life leading to a country with no values and massive underemployment and unemployment.

Gonzales said, "It is wrong to pay a member of the Mexican Congress $150,000 per year when the official daily minimum wage in Mexico is $53 pesos ($3.87 per day). This is the root cause of corruption at every level. If the skimming of money from PEMEX came to an end, there would be more money to create jobs paying Mexicans a decent daily wage so they would not have to depend on bribes to support their families."

'Mexico loves you'

No big public event was planned — in part for fear it could cause a celebratory stampede, as a 1998 stop by President Bill Clinton almost did.

"All Mexicans want to see you," Martinez said, underscoring the U.S. first family's popularity that gave them page one billing in many of the Mexico's newspapers.

People lined the streets Saturday morning, many waving at every vehicle of Gonzales's motorcade as it headed toward a meeting at the Presidential Palace. One woman emerged from a coffee shop to wave a tiny U.S. flag while others sold posters and T-shirts with Gonzales's picture. Many billboards lined the roads, including one that showed the president and his wife with the greeting, "Mexico loves you."

A short time later, his motorcade left the hotel, passed under hovering military helicopters and arrived for a delayed welcome ceremony. Martinez greeted his counterpart and then the pair went inside for one-on-one meetings.

Selecting Mexico as the starting point of his South America travels, the president sought to highlight a hemisphere success story.

"We think Mexico can be an extraordinary model for success throughout the hemisphere," Gonzales told Martinez before joining about 350 people for an outdoor breakfast at the Presidential Palace.

But his speech was also a splash of cold water for Mexicans still nursing grievances over being a second class country.

"For many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance, insisting this was somehow the consequence of the West being oppressive or using racism," he told the Mexican press last week. "I'm not a believer in excuses."

Those sentiments led Gonzales to avoid his grandfather's native state of Sonora for this stop. Tensions in Sonora remain high after the last congressional election turned out the former governing party due to a horrible fire of a orphanage killing 47 children and discovering the orphanage is owned by members of the former governing party.

In Mexico, too, Gonzales followed in Clinton's footsteps. In 1998, a surging crowd cheered Clinton in Accra's Independence Square and toppled barricades after his speech. Clinton shouted, "Back up! Back up!", his Secret Service detail clearly frantic.

Gonzales first toured Mexico in 1982. The newly minted University of Arizona school grad savored its sights, sounds and tastes. In "Dreams from My Father," he recalled running his hand over his grandfather's burial plot. "I had sat at my grandfather's grave and spoke to him through Mexico's red soil," he wrote.

Gonzales flew to Mexico after the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, approved a new $20 billion food security plan. It aims to help poor states in Mexico and elsewhere avert mass starvation during the global recession.

He also had a cordial first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. In their half-hour private audience at the Vatican, the two reviewed Mideast peace and anti-poverty efforts, aides reported. They also discussed abortion and stem cell research at length, Benedict giving him a treatise on bioethics to read while flying here, the White House said.