THE leaders of the United States and Mexico, who met in Washington on January 6th, have both experienced dramatic changes of fortune in recent months. Barack Obama, who looked feeble in the face of a divided Congress, has taken bold actions on immigration and Cuba that have endeared him to Latin Americans. Enrique Peña Nieto, whom Mr Obama must have envied for his ability to persuade Mexico’s Congress to launch historic reforms, has instead been clobbered by crime and scandal.

But this reversal of fortune did not upset the mutual esteem that has improved a cross-border relationship once fraught with insecurity and friction. More than their predecessors, Mr Obama and Mr Peña recognise “the need to focus on the good news”, even if that means downplaying such issues as corruption and the arms and drugs money that flow into Mexico from the United States, says Duncan Wood, head of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington.

Mr Obama basked in the warmth created south of the border by his latest regional initiatives. Mexicans cheered his recent decision to loosen the United States’ 54-year embargo on Cuba. His executive order on immigration reform could help perhaps 4m Mexicans living illegally in the United States find a way to citizenship. That not only pleases the Latino voters who helped twice elect Mr Obama, but also eases a perennial source of contention between the two neighbours, made worse by mass deportations in recent years. Trade between the two countries has grown since 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force (see chart). But Mexicans have been angered that tolerance for their compatriots living in the United States has frayed over the same period.