MY BRAZIL

In my home country, Mexico is known as the land of Corona beer and cheesy soap operas (Brazilians have a somewhat refined and protectionist taste when it comes to the soaps). The food, the scenery, most of it is lost on the majority of the population.

Still, there is another side to Mexico - it is an easy crossover point for many Brazilians seeking to enter the United States without proper documentation.

Recently, the Mexican government decided to do something about it and announced that the visa waiver program with Brazil would be terminated. From now on, Brazilians will be required to apply for a tourist visa to enter Mexico.

The interesting part: over a million people were detained in the U.S.-Mexico border in the last 12 months, but the percentage of Brazilians is nowhere near the 95% of Mexicans in the group...

The change in visa policy came in the form of a statement issued by Mexican officials citing, among other things, security concerns (the Mexican government believes there are Hamas and Hezbollah cells in Brazil)... Because of that, and considering El Presidente's well known fixation with terrorism (motives behind the fixation are, of course, open to interpretation), critics claim that the U.S. government is behind this initiative.

Fact: the U.S.-Mexico border needs regulation, and security concerns are definitely more than justified in this day and age. But as for terrorists trying to enter Mexico (and ultimately the U.S.) through the Brazil/Mexico visa waiver program - it is not impossible; still, I tend to believe these people are, unfortunately, more sophisticated and better funded than that. The truth is, most Brazilians resorting to this type of border crossing are people who do not have much back home. Their motivation to come to the United States is - as in the case of so many other immigrants - to have a better life, or at least a chance at a better life.

Which brings us back to a question that gained additional relevance after the federal government's response to the Katrina disaster: where would El Presidente's administration be without terrorism? Nothing else seems to affect it anyway.