Posted on 05/24/2008 9:24:21 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
MEXICO CITY - The chief of Mexico's war on drug gangs said Washington should concentrate on halting the flow of arms to Mexican drug cartels rather than haggle over how much aid to give Mexico's anti-smuggling operation.
Reacting to a vote by U.S. lawmakers to trim an aid package for the drug war, Mexico's deputy attorney general, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said an alternative would be to keep the cash in the United States and use it to curb illegal arms trafficking across the border.
"Some of us were talking, remarking that, well, this (sum of money) is all very well, but why don't we tell the Americans they could spend it on their (border security forces) to stop the flow of arms to Mexico," Santiago Vasconcelos said in remarks on local radio distributed by his office on Saturday.
Santiago Vasconcelos, the point man in Mexico's crackdown on drug smuggling gangs, said 97 percent of the weapons used by Mexican drug gangs came from the United States.
He said Mexico would evaluate whether to accept any U.S. offer of funds and under what conditions.
Mexico is spending $7 billion of its own money to fund its 18-month-old crackdown on the powerful and violent cartels that smuggle Colombian cocaine north to U.S. consumers.
U.S. President George W. Bush had offered to add $1.4 billion in three tranches to pay for surveillance equipment and speedy aircraft, but his opponents in Congress have haggled over the amount and asked that human rights conditions be attached.
The U.S. House of Representatives this month cut the first tranche of the so-called Merida Initiative, named after the Mexican city where it was conceived, to $400 million from $500 million, and the Senate Appropriations Committee put forward a figure of $350 million.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has made the war on drug cartels the centerpiece of his presidency, deploying some 25,000 troops and federal police across the country, but the operation has sparked considerable bloodshed.
Turf wars between rival cartels and battles with the army have killed 1,380 people this year, nearly 50 percent more than the same period last year, according to the attorney general's office. (Reporting by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Forget sending Mexico money, build the fence...
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Is there really an arms smuggling problem from the US into Mexico? I can see why they would be upset if that were true. I’ve always wondered who these arms smugglers were and who they got their weapons from.
Proposal:
We stop the flow of guns.
You stop the flow of illegals.
The irony of that piece is so thick I can’t find my shoes.
But maybe they’ll help us build the fence to stop the flow of firearms?
NOT !
Mexico should focus on stopping illegal drug production.
Illegal aliens are the people sending guns to Mexico, but Mexico HELPS illegals into the US.
Irony is a bitch.
¡Presidente Calderón, construya una cerca!
Umm Dear Mexico , your citizens bring em back too your country illegally. You remember that word ......Illegal ?
as ya state SS..........BUILD THE FENCE !!
And I don’t care whose side it’s built on .....US or MEXICAN !! Hell build one on both sides !!!
Like Messico is qualified to advise anyone on anything, other than how to be a corrupt cellpool, that is.
Balance of payments? Drugs into the U.S., guns into Mexico?
“US should focus on stemming gun flow, Mexico says.”
Great idea.
That strategy sure worked in NYC, Wash DC, and Detroit.
Projection means never having to say you’re sorry.
Just BUILD THE FENCE and we won't have to worry about the guns coming from the North anymore. Did I mention BUILD THE FENCE? I meant to say BUILD THE FENCE.
It would solve so many problems...
Is the DHS so inefficient that weapons can be exported to the Mexican Drug Cartel’s from the U.S. during a period of such vehement anti gun discussion within our own borders?
I’ve read the accusations from South of the border about the weapons coming from the U.S. before, but cannot get it through my head how it’s possible for this to happen when we have Liberal snitches everywhere ready to pounce upon Americas 2nd Amendment legal gun owners.
It’s not in the interests of either Political Party to ignore massive shipments of arms and munitions from our Nation to the enemies of our “ally”, Mexico.
The articles I’ve read always indicate the U.S. has to stop the guns from crossing the border, but never indicate who, or how those weapons are getting to the Drug Cartels, therefore seem to me as empty accusations.
So who really is shipping arms and munitions there? Is it really the U.S.? Is it BS? Is it actually Cuba?, China?, or Chavez? WHO?
“Just askin’”
There is a large population of Mexican American citizens whose families have been in the US for a hundred years. These people have relatives on both sides of the border. They wouldn’t hesitate if a Mexican relative asked them to buy a rifle or a case of ammo.
the Illegals can live in the stripe between the fences...
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