which killed 6,000 last year alone . Statements by Cabinet members and Obama himself calmed things down , but tensions arose again . Congress ended a pilot program that allowed Mexican trucks into U.S. territory , as contemplated in the North America Free Trade Agreement ; Mexico , in line with the treaty , retaliated by imposing fees on 90 U.S. products . Even so , the bilateral relationship is at a high point and large-scale protests are n't expected when Obama visits the Mexican capital . But there are pending issues , such as immigration reform , trade and a pressing question in this capital : Who will the next U.S. ambassador be ? Local media have been reporting that Carlos Pascual , a Cuban-American expert on Europe and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine , is Obama 's choice , but the fact that he wrote a report for the Brookings Institute on Iraq and the importance of reconstructing a failed state was n't well received in political and government circles . Obama and Calderón have a lot to sort out in this one-day visit . Then comes the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago ,
In our Behind the Scenes series , CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events . After a one-on-one interview with President Obama on Wednesday , CNN en Español 's Juan Carlos López is traveling with Obama to Mexico City and to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago . President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón in Mexico City on Thursday . MEXICO CITY , Mexico -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It 's the return of an American president to Mexico City . Although George W. Bush visited the country several times , he never made it to this city of more than 20 million people , and it is President Obama 's first visit to Latin America . Obama 's relationship with Mexico started on shaky ground , although the first foreign leader he met with as president-elect was Mexican President Felipe Calderón . Reports from the Pentagon and the CIA considered that Mexico was at risk of becoming a failed state , something that did n't sit well with the Calderón government . Washington corrected course and even admitted its own responsibility in Mexico 's growing drug war ,