If Mexico is going to solve its crime problem, it needs clean police officers, from the bottom up. Under former president Felipe Calderon, Mexico initiated a plan to give every single officer in the country a “control de confianza,” or vetting test. A good idea on paper, perhaps, but its implementation has been a complicated mess. Among other things, there is a concern that cops who fail and are fired will be recruited by the drug cartels. (Of course some are working for them already). Read the story here.

Photo: A police officer patrols in downtown Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, Mexico. The mayor’s office there recently learned that of the roughly 1,600 police officers who had taken a trustworthiness test, 389 had failed. [RF]

Detail of agitprop painting at a pro-immigration rally, Mexico City, May 2013. [RF]

Tonatico, Estado de Mexico, May 4. [RF]

Photos: Young activists in Mexico City protesting US immigration policy, and the often harsh fate of migrants as they move across Mexico toward the northern border. May 3, Mexico City, Paseo de la Reforma.  [RF]

The president arrived in the Mexican capital today, where he talked security and the economy with Enrique Peña Nieto, his Mexican counterpart. Tomorrow a speech, and then off to Costa Rica for a meeting with the presidents of Central America. Obama enjoys a 54% approval rating among Mexicans.

LA Times coverage here, here, here, here and here.

Above: Baffling (heartfelt? offensive?) art brut from the mind-bending gallery “Bad Paintings of President Barack Obama.”

Random kid, Costa Chica, Guerrero. [RF]

Details of the drawings “Fast” & “Furious,” by artist Miguel Angel Rios, currently on display at Mexico City’s Sala de Arte Publica Siqueiros. [RF]