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Podcasts Take Two
Mexico's President meets with Obama amid protests over missing students
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Jan 6, 2015
Listen • 7:13
Mexico's President meets with Obama amid protests over missing students
Since the students' disappearance, protests have hit cities in Mexico and the U.S., and mired Peña Nieto's two-year-old presidency in controversy.
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on November 27, 2012. Pena Nieto, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), takes office on December 1, replacing Felipe Calderon from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), five months after his election victory.
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on November 27, 2012.
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JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
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Since the students' disappearance, protests have hit cities in Mexico and the U.S., and mired Peña Nieto's two-year-old presidency in controversy.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is in Washington DC today meeting with President Obama. The two are expected to talk economic and trade policies and the changing stance toward Cuba.

But protestors on both sides of the border are using the visit to call for action in the case of the 43 students who disappeared in Iguala, Mexico last September. Since the students' disappearance, protests have hit cities in Mexico and the U.S., and mired Peña Nieto's two-year-old presidency in controversy.

Despite his declining reputation in his home country, Pena Nieto has attempted to maintain an upbeat tone. In these Tweets, posted earlier Tuesday morning, he points to opportunities in the new year:

Meanwhile, groups such as #USTired2 and #YaMeCanse have voiced frustration and called for broad reforms from the Mexican government.

For more, we're joined by Shannon O'Neil, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States and the Road Ahead.