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Fareed Zakaria GPS
Race In America; Interview with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto; NASA's Juno Probe Reaches Jupiter. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired July 10, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:12] FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: This is GPS, the GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria coming to you live from New York.
We'll begin today with America. With Baton Rouge and Minnesota. And Dallas. The troubles between African-Americans and the police. The struggles between blacks and whites. Divides that seem to be shaking the nation.
Why are these tensions exploding now? How does America move forward? We'll bring you thoughtful perspectives from America and abroad.
Also, the president of Mexico, in an exclusive interview, responding for the first time in depth to Donald Trump's claims and charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.
There is no way that Mexico can pay a wall like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAKARIA: But first here's my take. In 1944, the Swedish social scientist Gunner Murdolph, who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, published a landmark study of the United States titled "An American Dilemma." It was about the condition of blacks in America. He posited that over the course of American history, white prejudice have kept African-Americans low in standards of living, health, education and manners and morals. But those low standards in turn confirmed and reinforced white prejudice setting off a depressing spiral. It's tragic to say that in 2016, 72 years later, those words still seem strikingly relevant.
The first thing to point out about the grotesque shootings of police officers in Dallas this week is that these are not simply cruel and abominable acts, but deeply dangerous. Civilization rests on the rule of law and that rests on respectful officers of the law.
I have never liked hearing marching crowds that chant slogans like "No Justice, No Peace." That is a not-so-veiled threat against the basic rules of civil society. We all rely on the police and other elements of the criminal justice system to maintain order, which is the building block of justice.
Look at countries like Iraq and Libya today where order has collapsed. The rule of law has been replaced by the law of the jungle. But it is also worth noting that the rule of law gains credibility when it is seen as fair and that America has a problem in this regard. President Obama this week cited some data that is worth repeating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: According to various studies, not just one, but a wide range of studies that have been carried out over a number of years, African-Americans are 30 percent more likely than whites to be pulled over. After being pulled over, African-Americans and Hispanics are three times more likely to be searched.
Last year, African-Americans were shot by police at more than twice the rate of whites. African-Americans are arrested at twice the rate of whites, African-American defendants are 75 percent more likely to be charged with offenses, carrying mandatory minimums. They receive sentences that are almost 10 percent longer than comparable whites arrested for the same crime.
So that if you add it all up, the African-American and Hispanic population, who make up only 30 percent of the general population, make up more than half of the incarcerated population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAKARIA: Take a state like Maryland, where blacks make up 29 percent of the state's population, but a staggering 72 percent of its prison population. Something has gone wrong with the criminal justice system in America.
I don't pretend there is an easy solution, but I do believe we need to all recognize that there is a bigger problem than we want to admit.
One final point, we need to keep numbers and statistics in mind after one of these traumatic weeks, just as we do after a terror attack. You can feel safe in America today.
[10:05:01] Law and order does exist. It does not need to be restored. The vast, vast majority of cops in the country do their very dangerous jobs admirably and fairly. We should not generalize from a small number of incidents and police officers about the force in general.
The same is true of course about African-Americans. The vast, vast majority of whom it should go without saying are law abiding citizens. If we can remember to see people as individuals, and not as caricatures and stereotypes, that itself would be a small step on a road to progress.
Let's get started.
In the wake of the shootings this week in the United States, the small Caribbean commonwealth of the Bahamas has issued a travel warning to its citizens, 90 percent of whom are black. The key part of the warning said this, "Young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police."
Is this how the world now sees America? Is this the reality of today's America? If so, what's to be done about it?
Joining me to discuss all this in New York are John McWhorter who is an associate professor of English at Columbia University, Lanre Bakare is the deputy arts editor for the "Guardian U.S." He was born in Britain and now based in New York. In Atlanta, Angela Rye is with us, she's the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, a lawyer and a CNN contributor. And in Paris, Bernard-Henri Levy, he's perhaps France's best known philosopher, he is an author, an activist and a frequent visitor to America.
Bernard, let me start with you and ask you, what does it look like to you? You are a great lover of the United States. You wrote a book once where you retraced Taupville's footsteps in America. When you hear about a week like this, when you watch it, what do you make of it?
BERNARD-HENRI LEVY, PHILOSOPHER: My dear Fareed, I can hardly hear you because it is a very special day today in France, as you can hear. It is the last day of the march of the football match, so it's very noisy around. But I heard you. What is very sad for me, I was remembering all the week the first speech I ever heard from Barack Obama. It was 12 years ago. He was in Boston, in the Democratic convention in Boston, he said, there is no longer white America and black America. There is no longer red America or blue America. There is United States of America.
When you see the situation, post Ferguson, post Baltimore and post Dallas, there is -- it is such so much heartbreaking, and a friend of America who I am, and who we all are in Paris, we are really concerned about what is happening in the United States of America these days. We have to fight that with all possible cold blood of course. I know that America will prevail on that. But it is in a way so sad and so heartbreaking.
ZAKARIA: Lanre, you look at this, you wrote something in the "Guardian" that I was very struck by. You talked about the contrast between your experience as a man of African origin in Britain versus in America. Explain how those are different.
LANRE BAKARE, DEPUTY ARTS EDITOR, GUARDIAN U.S.: Well, I suppose in the UK, we have problems with police and this year we saw the Hillsborough inquest 27 years after, and the incident finally not (INAUDIBLE), got there, and police in the UK, there can be problems, there can be problems around race. We've seen Steve Lawrence and what happened there. But when there are interactions with police officers on people of color in the UK, they're very rarely deadly. That seems to be the difference.
When I came to America, when I first got here in the autumn of 2014, it was Eric Gardner, there was Michael Brown, and Akai Gurley. There were was this kind of run of young African-American men who are unarmed being killed by the police. And that is just shocking. And it's shocking to be in a country where you are exposed to that and that's on your doorstep around the corner.
ZAKARIA: Part of that, Lanre, is that in Britain -- correct me if I'm wrong -- most cops aren't armed. I mean, in the United States, the general population is armed, but in Britain, even the Bobbys, even the police officers don't have guns.
BAKARE: Exactly.
ZAKARIA: But how much of it is also a difference in terms of the -- the kind of trust and interaction, you know, the profiling that takes place immediately by both sides?
[10:10:03] BAKARE: Well -- I don't -- I think there are definitely issues, if you look at stop and search, in big areas like London. There's a lot of tension between police and communities of color. So, for example, in Brixton, historically, you know, we had riots there in the '70s and the '80s, and more recently after the Mark Duggan shooting. So there is a mistrust between the police and communities of color at times in the UK. It's not simple to say it does not exist, it just that, you know, the big difference I've seen in America when I got here, and people told me, it's God -- it's God, guns, and government.
And, you know, in these instances it seems that guns are the problem. The police, they're interacting with people and they don't know if they're armed or not. So they're on edge. That then leads to more violence. And then you have this distrust of the community. In 2011, when Mark Duggan was killed, he was the only person killed by the police that year. That led to riots all over the country and a big kind of, you know, public riot where people came together, and said what is going on in this country? If that was exacerbated by more instances of people being killed by the police, who knows what would happen?
ZAKARIA: Right. One has to remember in Britain, I forget the numbers but it's something like 400 people die in gunshot -- violence a year. In the United States, it's, you know, 30,000 due to gun suicides.
Angela, let me ask you, when you look at this, is there -- is this the common African-American experience that is playing itself out when we think about Baton Rouge, when we think about the interaction with -- with the police? Is this something that you think is part of American -- you know, African-American life?
ANGELA RYE, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Well, I think there are a couple of things, Fareed. The first thing I would say to you is that there -- there may be a common thread, right, but African-Americans are certainly not monolithic in this country. There are differences. If you were -- I was born on the West Coast, for example, in Seattle, my experiences are vastly different from someone that grew up in Philadelphia or New York. And they're different from what you see in the south.
I think the one thing that I will say is common is when I am driving down the street in my vehicle, and if a police car is behind me, whether the lights are on or not, I get extremely nervous and I would venture to say that I speak for a number of African-Americans, not all, who had that same experience as well. You don't know what will happen. It is not unique only to black men. It is the experience also of black women.
We can look at what happened with Sandra Bland. I think at some point the issue is we have to I.D., and by that I mean just identify, the fact that so much of this comes from the root of racism and what racism has done to every system in this country. That is what this country was built upon -- I should say re-built upon because that's not how the indigenous people intended. But when white people got here, this was a system that was built upon the systematic oppression of people of color.
And until we're comfortable, Fareed, talking about that, talking about the roots of racism and all of its ills, all of its societal ills, we're going to continue to have this problem because this issue is also not unique to law enforcement exclusively. This is a problem that we see in our economic systems, it's a problem we see in education, it's a problem we see across the board because if you inherently believe that I am not equal, if you inherently believe at the very beginning that I'm three-fifth of a human being, then you're never going to treat me the same because you don't value my life the same. And that is the problem.
ZAKARIA: We are going to come back in a moment with this terrific panel.
When we come back, just to that point, I will ask John McWhorter about some controversial comments he made. He said long before this week that white police officers aren't the main problem holding them African-Americans, it is actually African-Americans themselves. I'll ask him to explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:17:52] ZAKARIA: And we are back with more of GPS. Joining me here in New York to talk about this week's tragic events in the United States are John McWhorter, Lanre Bakare, in Atlanta Angela Rye and Bernard-Henri Levy, our great friend joins us from Paris.
John, let me ask you about some comments you made about -- you said that if Black Lives Matter really was worried about black lives, it should keep in mind that black-on-black violence is the overwhelming majority of the problem. And I want to tell you what I have heard from some cops, which is thoughtful honest cops will say, look, we go into these neighborhoods, predominantly African-American neighborhoods, and we know there's a much, much greater likelihood of violent crime there.
We have -- we have lived that statistical experience, about 50 percent of violent crime in the United States is committed by African- Americans. So you know, they're saying, look, that's why in the heat of the moment, we react as we do. JOHN MCWHORTER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: I have no
doubt that there's a fantasy vision of Black Lives Matter, and it is mine, where Black Lives Matter addresses both white cops killing black men and also the homicides that happen in black neighborhoods that black men are much more danger of suffering. I stand by that fantasy vision. But this week the topic is racism, and without a doubt I think anyone in American who thinks that black people go on too much about racism needs to understand that yes, there can be a certain melodrama in discussions of things like whether or not white people should attest to their privilege or what a micro-aggression is, or what cultural appropriation is.
But when it comes to the relationship between the black community and the cops, we're talking about a house that's mostly burned down, but the chimney is still standing. If we could get past this knot in the relationship between black cops, and particularly black men, although there are also black women, then we would be in a new American that really finally was getting past race.
Ask a black person why they think racism is so prevalent. And it's not cultural appropriation, or whether somebody used the N-word, it's really about the cops.
[10:20:02] This is tearing the nation apart. I've been studying, if you want to call it, race now for almost 20 years, and the main thing I found is that if there's anything in the way people talk about race and racism that seems counterintuitive or exaggerated, the root of it is this grievous problem where too many black people are killed by cops for essentially no reason. And very quickly, if that's not true, many people seem to say that it's a distortion to say that this is a black problem and race has nothing to do with it.
We need to see a list of white people within the past 10 years who have been killed under similar circumstances. Not just killed by cops. That's easy. Killed under these circumstances where really they were killed for no particular reason. And until we see that list, then I think we can say that being black is central to this problem, and until this goes away, we are not past race in this country.
ZAKARIA: Bernard-Henri Levi, America has this great reputation of being able to integrate minorities. You look at it again from the outside and you've often affirmed that quality. Do you think that race, that the African-American experience is America's distinctive problem and we simply have not come to grips with it?
LEVY: Fareed, I would reply from a foreign point of view. I think that there is first of all a myth which is that America is an un- politicized country. There is a lot of politics and half politics in America. Politics in a French, in a European sense, very strong sense of political struggle of (INAUDIBLE). Number two, I remember when I made a long trip in deep America 10 years ago on the footsteps of Saukville, I could see how much the race issue was still unfortunately a political wound.
A lot has been done for sure since 50, 60 years, but it is not over. And the race is -- and I'm not surprised at all the tragedies which happened in the last years -- in the last months and years. And what should be said from abroad also is that unfortunately you have sometimes in America a dirty campaign. When I see some of the topics which are thrown up in the debate by one of the candidates, which is Donald Trump, it will not help to reunify this country.
If I was -- if I were an American today, I would say that two things are important. Number one, to say black lives matter. This is so important. But number two, if I were an American, I would say policemen lives matter. If the American public opinion and opinion leaders can unite and do two things, black lives matter, policemen lives matter, the two together, then America would prevail and will gain on this terrible tragedy of the last battle wounds.
Policemen lives matter, black lives matter.
ZAKARIA: When we come back, we will ask about one other life, how does it play in that we have an African-American commander-in-chief. Barack Obama's role when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:27:27] ZAKARIA: And we are back with John McWhorter, Lanre Bakare, Angela Rye and Bernard-Henri Levy.
Angela, what do we make of the fact that we have an African-American president? There is a theory, Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his recent podcast, that the fact that you have allowed in a member of an excluded minority in a strange way then gives you license to continue the old pattern of discrimination, sort of like after you go to the gym, you feel like you've earned the right to have a milk shake.
Does that make any sense to you? That the fact that you have elected an African-American actually could mean a certain reversion to patterns of discrimination.
RYE: Well, it certainly appears to be the case, Fareed. I think it's interesting even that you use the term allowed. That he was allowed to be there. That's a terminology that we would never used to describe the 43 presidents that preceded him.
I think to put this in context, I'll use an example that hopefully I don't get in trouble with a person on my team for sharing, but after these shootings happen he was in tears. And he's like a little brother to me and he was crying, he said I can't believe that this is our experience and we have a black man in the White House, that this continues to be our experience. It's one that we certainly can identify with from hearing the stories of our grandfathers and fathers and all of our ancestors.
And to see that this is still our reality today in 2016 when we very well may be on the verge of electing our first woman president is really disheartening. And I do think that people thought that they were doing the right thing, I'll check the box and I will allow this man to become president, but then that means that I can show that because you all have made it, right, because you have now opened the door at 1600 Pennsylvania, now that means you are equal and I don't have to deal with the pattern and practice of discrimination that has existed in this country for years, or the vestiges of slavery.
And I think that we would be remiss if we believe that is in fact the case. If you compare Donald Trump, and I hate to make this political, but if you compare Donald Trump and what he is allowed to do, compared to Barack Obama and what he can't do, the things that are allowed to come out of Donald Trump's mouth that Barack Obama could never say, I think that is illuminating in it of itself. The fact that his campaign slogan could be "Make America Great Again," and that pains me and people who look like me to know.
And the fact that he can reference something like "Operation Wet Back" in a debate, where hundreds of our Mexican brothers and sisters were killed, slaughtered and taken out of this country because someone didn't allow them to be here anymore, is exactly the problem. The last time America was great to me, Fareed, was in 2008 when he was elected president. And ever since then we've been paying the price for that.
ZAKARIA: Lanre, you're a British citizen. You -- you're married, and when you think about having children, you said something interesting to me.
BAKARE: Yeah, I just think, when you look at what's going on in America, and every time I turn on the TV, watch CNN, watch "NEW DAY" with the guys, and there's another black person being killed by the police. That's what it's looked like since I've (inaudible) in 2014 -- not every day, but there's been runs where you've had that. You've had it this week.
It's shocking and it's not normal. You know, it's not right. I grew up in a country where that didn't happen. And most people in the world grow up in countries where that does not happen. And I won't want to bring up a child in a country where they think that's normal, where they think that's OK and it desensitizes them. I'll never get over seeing Eric Garner dying in front of me on the TV screen. That's absolutely horrific. And, yeah, I just wouldn't want to bring someone into the world and put them in that context and go, OK, this is what -- this is what you've got, because it's not right.
ZAKARIA: Fascinating conversation. Thank you all.
Bernard, best of luck to France. We hope it wins the -- the soccer match -- the football match. Sorry.
Next, on GPS, an exclusive interview with the president of Mexico. Will he pay for Donald Trump's wall? What about Trump's claims that Mexico is exporting drug dealers and rapists to America?
I asked him all that, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: They are called "the three amigos," President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto. They may have experienced a slightly awkward handshake at their recent summit, but their relationship is anything but awkward. Together the three men have further solidified relations between what many now call the world's most powerful economic block, North America.
But what would a Trump presidency do to this interconnected economic system?
To find out, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Mexico's president on the sidelines of the meeting in Ottawa's historic Rideau Hall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, an honor and a pleasure to have you with us.
ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: Thank you so much. It is my pleasure to be here. Thank you, Fareed.
ZAKARIA: Let me ask you, as the president of Mexico, how you respond to a very specific charge that the Republican front-runner, the presumptive nominee has made. Donald Trump said, after -- in explaining his initial comments about Mexico, he said -- and I'm going to quote so I get it exactly right -- "What can be more simply and accurately stated? The Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are in many cases criminals, drug dealers, rapists, et cetera."
Is that true?
PENA NIETO: May I say this in -- I'll try to say this in English to have a -- a very pure statement on what I have said more than once. For my government, for my -- as president, I am very respectful on the democratic process that is taking place in the U.S. We are not part of that decision that has to be made by the American society. I believe that any of the candidates, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump -- I'm sure that both of them would like to build good conditions and better wellness for their people. So my position is very clear. We are very respectful to whomever is elected. We want to build a positive and constructive relation among Mexico and to whomever becomes president of the United States.
ZAKARIA: But he makes a very specific charge about your government. He says that you are sending the most unwanted people from Mexico, criminals, rapists, drug dealers, that the Mexican government is actually sending these people to -- to the United States. Is that true?
PENA NIETO: That is not true. I categorically deny it. What is true is that both governments are working together, have a close coordination in order to bottle these kind of guys. I mean, there are drug leaders which have a place to work, Mexico and the United States -- both governments are giving the battle to them. Those people who are living in the illegal position, those who are breaking the law, I believe that there is a cause for both governments to face, to deal and to work together in order to put these people in jail. ZAKARIA: So Donald Trump's main policy proposal, the one he began his
campaign with, is that he intends to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, along the border, and he intends to get Mexico to pay for it.
PENA NIETO: There is (inaudible) Mexico pay for a wall, but any decisions inside the United States is a decision of its government.
ZAKARIA: But under no circumstances would Mexico pay for that wall?
PENA NIETO: There is no way that Mexico can pay a wall like that. But any decision can be taken for the government in the United States.
Let me switch to Spanish, because I think I'll be more precise in what I want to say.
(TRANSLATED): What matters here is to place this relationship into context. We have to make it very clear that development and prosperity in the United States is built necessarily through the prosperity of its neighboring countries.
We also have to bear in mind that the security of the United States is linked with the security of its neighboring countries, and this is what we have built. And I'll say it again, this is what we have been doing with the U.S. government. We have a relationship of coordination, of collaboration and of cooperation in the area of security, precisely in order to have security in Mexico, to have security in the U.S. And we are -- we are journey companions. We are strategic partners working for security in North America.
ZAKARIA: Mexico has made significant progress and you have implemented some very significant reforms. And yet when you hear rhetoric about Mexicans as being rapists and drug dealers and criminals, how does that make you feel, just as a person?
PENA NIETO: I cannot agree with such a generalization for Mexicans. There is no way to agree with comments like these which describe all Mexicans in such a way.
I believe that, in every country, there are individuals who are criminals that we need to fight and apply the full extent of the law. I also believe that our societies, and specifically in Mexico and the U.S., are largely integrated.
Not many people know, for instance, that every single day, 1 million people cross the border between Mexico and the U.S. and they do it legally. Every single day, 1 million people cross the border from the U.S. into Mexico and from Mexico into the U.S. And they do it legally. Our commerce is intensive. More than 370,000 trucks and cars cross our borders. This is a sign of how active our relationship is and the level of integration that Mexico has with the U.S. and the U.S. with Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: When we come back, I will ask Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto, about his country's most notorious criminal, the drug dealer Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. This is a man who has now twice escaped from the highest-security Mexican prisons. Now that he is back in custody, the United States wants him extradited. Will Mexico allow it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: Back now with more of my exclusive interview with Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto. Before Trump came along, one of the biggest sources of tension between the United States and Mexico was the steady flow of drugs from south to north. The two brazen escapes of drug lord "El Chapo" Guzman highlighted the American frustration with Mexico's war on drugs.
But is his arrest emblematic of renewed progress south of the border?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: One of the things people do think about when they think about Mexico is the drug wars and the drug cartels. Is it your sense that your government is finally winning these wars and that this will, five years from now, be a much diminished, much smaller problem in Mexico?
PENA NIETO (TRANSLATED): I don't know if these battles will ever come to an end. But what I can tell you is that this administration has been able to revert the growing trend of insecurity that our country had in 2012. The number of malicious crimes, such as murders, kidnappings and extortions, have come down.
I must acknowledge that some regions in our country still face strong issues in the area of security, and we are fighting that. But in general terms, I would say that, yes, Mexico has seen progress. Yes, we have provided more security to our people, but we still have to keep fighting in this arena.
ZAKARIA: A Mexican judge has stayed the order of extradition of El Chapo to the United States. Now, this makes a lot of people very nervous. This is a man who has twice escaped from Mexico's highest- security prisons, obviously bribed people along the way. It does make people wonder, is he now bribing judges?
Can you assure us that El Chapo will be extradited to the United States?
PENA NIETO (TRANSLATED): It is an effort that the government, through the general attorney's office, is working toward, the extradition. With this legal procedure, the government shows a clear and firm intention to extradite this highly dangerous criminal.
It is a fact that, yes, he has evaded justice on two occasions; he escaped twice, but this administration has caught him twice. And we are now in a legal process. This is just part of a legal process, and his lawyers are fighting for his defense. But I hope that, since this is now under the jurisdiction of the judiciary, the evidence will show that there are enough elements, together with the intentions of the government, to extradite El Chapo to the United States.
ZAKARIA: How did he manage to escape? People look at it and, I mean, he must have bribed so many people to be able to do that?
PENA NIETO (TRANSLATED): It is hard to say. Anything that I would say would be pure speculation, but what matters to me is that he is in prison; what matters to me is to know that we recaptured him. In a three-year span, we captured him once and we captured him again.
More than 12 years had passed and he had not been captured, and this administration caught him twice. And of course investigations are going on to identify if someone was aiding his escape or not. but what matters is that he is captured him again. more than 12 years had passed and he had not been captured and this administration caught him twice. And of course investigations are going on to identify if someone was aiding his escape or not. But what matters is that he is in jail and he is prosecuted.
ZAKARIA: Amnesty International is just out with a report on Mexico, and it is a pretty critical report about torture in Mexican prisons, the use of rape, sexual violence against women. Do you believe that that report is accurate and, if so, what are you doing about it?
PENA NIETO (TRANSLATED): There is no doubt that we have a human rights challenge. We have seen progress. We have managed to strengthen our legal framework, our legal foundations. To date, we have new laws that aim to advance and protect fundamental human rights. You will find in our constitution the rights that are protected in international treaties.
But this cannot happen overnight, nor can it be achieved by just enacting new laws. We need to create a new culture, specifically in the institutions that Mexico has, and even more in the institutions that enforce the law.
It takes an effort to create a new culture so that their actions are ruled by protocols, which evidently are poised for the respect of human rights. And it is still a work in progress. Although I can affirm that there have been improvements and that human rights recommendations issued for Mexico have decreased as compared to the number of recommendations there were three and a half years ago, I must recognize that we still have a lot to accomplish.
Two pieces of legislation are up for debate in congress, the enforced disappearance act, the act against torture, because we want to have a stronger legal framework and fight these practices. I think we have made progress, but at the same time, a blunt statement and just to say that Mexico is a country where there is no respect for human rights and liberties is a mistake. But we must say that, yes, progress has been made, but we still have a lot to do.
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, pleasure to have you on.
PENA NIETO: Fareed, thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, patriotic rap...
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ZAKARIA (voice over): ... from "Hamilton" to China...
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ZAKARIA: ... really.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: Earlier this week NASA's probe Juno successfully entered Jupiter's orbit, after a nearly five-year journey from Earth.
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(UNKNOWN): Juno, welcome to Jupiter.
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ZAKARIA: The probe's main goal is to understand how the largest planet in the solar system was formed. It's expected to orbit Jupiter 37 times over the next 20 months, concluding with a planned suicidal descent toward the planet in early 2018.
It brings me to my question: How many years has the longest continuously operated space probe been up and running for NASA, 12 years, 21, 29 or 38 years?
Stay tuned and we'll tell you the correct answer.
This week's book of the week is "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson. He was a young lawyer who decided to help convicted criminals on death row. What he discovered was a horror story of corruption, abuse of authority and racism, all permeating the American criminal justice system. The book is beautifully written and will give all these police shooting videos a sad and deep context.
And now for the last look.
Here in New York, the hottest ticket ever is a musical about a famous founding father.
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ZAKARIA: Well, patriotic hip-hop is going global. Last week this video made the rounds in China. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SONG PLAYING)
ZAKARIA (voice over): The stylishly produced video was released by the Communist Youth League. It's worth listening to because the lively tone, rap lyrics and upbeat images are all in service of classic state propaganda.
The video's remarkably detailed, talking about pollution, corruption, but also technological advances.
Now, you can't find that kind of useful information in "Hamilton," can you?
(SONG PLAYING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA (on camera): The correct answer to the "GPS Challenge" question is D. Voyager 2, which was launched in August 1977, has been actively exploring space for 38 years and counting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA (voice over): After passing Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, NASA says it's now exploring the outer reaches of the solar system. In case it's discovered by extraterrestrials, Voyager 2 carries a phonograph record that portrays life on Earth, including spoken greetings in dozens of languages...
(UNKNOWN): Hello from the children of planet Earth.
(UNKNOWN): (UNTRANSLATED)
(SONG PLAYING)
ZAKARIA: ... various musical selections...
(SONG PLAYING)
ZAKARIA: ... and one tweet from Donald Trump.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA (on camera): I am, of course, just kidding about that last one.
Thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. I will see you next week.