Michelle Obama Launches Solo Agenda On Mexico Tour

Two months after rolling out a national campaign against childhood obesity in the U.S., first lady Michelle Obama is setting her sights on the rest of the world and the role she wants to play in it.

She is on her first solo visit to Mexico and is launching what aides said is an international agenda that will put her considerable star power to work engaging young people around the world.

Mrs. Obama arrived in Mexico City late Tuesday after stopping in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to see the ruins three months after a massive earthquake killed an estimated 230,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless in the Caribbean nation.

Her visit to the Mexican capital Wednesday and Thursday is also part goodwill tour to highlight relations between the U.S. and its southern border ally. The first order of business Wednesday is a trip to Los Pinos, the residence of President Felipe Calderon, to meet privately with his wife, Margarita Zavala.

In another sign of the important friendship between the two countries, the White House recently announced that the second state dinner of President Barack Obama's administration will be in honor of Mexico, on May 19.

After the closed-door sit-down with Zavala and a joint tour of the National Museum of Anthropology, Mrs. Obama was to spend the rest of her public time with children. She planned to visit Escuela Siete de Enero, a public elementary school; give a speech at Universidad Iberoamericana to area high school and college students; and lead a round-table discussion with youth leaders at La Hacienda de Los Morales.

Her international agenda appears similar to what she's been doing domestically.

Since becoming first lady in January 2009, Mrs. Obama has made it her practice to involve students in almost every undertaking at the White House. Students helped plant her vegetable garden, professional musicians have been brought in to give students lessons, and she and members of her staff mentor young women.

The first U.S. first lady of color, Mrs. Obama often says magic played no part in her getting to the White House. She now hopes to travel the world delivering "you-can-do-it"-style pep talks to help inspire a new generation of young people to become leaders and problem-solvers in their communities.

The meeting between Mrs. Obama and Zavala will not be their first. The first ladies met on the sidelines of international summits their husbands attended last year. They also met quietly at the White House in February when Zavala came to Washington to attend a conference on reducing the demand for drugs - a problem so serious in cities and towns along the U.S.-Mexico border that nearly 23,000 people were killed in the violence between warring drug cartels in the past three years, according to a report by the Mexican government.

The drug issue is likely to come up in their talks, as it often does whenever U.S. and Mexican officials meet.

Like Mrs. Obama, Zavala also is interested in childhood obesity and the plight of Mexican children in U.S. custody, especially those who were detained after they crossed the border to try to find their parents.