Posted on 06/15/2005 8:00:05 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
MEXICO CITY, June 15 (Reuters) - Mexico hit back on Wednesday at U.S. criticism of its drug war, accusing a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official who censured Mexico of talking nonsense.
Anthony Placido, the DEA's assistant administrator for intelligence, told a House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday that U.S. efforts to slow the inflow of illegal drugs were being hampered by Mexican inefficiency and corruption.
[Is it just me, or does the following paragraph sound like Baghdad Bob?]
"It is worthwhile making it clear that we are not worried nor interested about his opinion, which is wrong, and what we have to do is be clear that this gentleman has no reason to be talking this nonsense," Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told journalists.
More than 500 people have died in a war between drug gangs on the Mexican side of the two countries' border. Mexico has told Washington several times this year that U.S. criticism of its efforts to curb the cartels was not welcome.
Placido said in written testimony to the hearing that "law enforcement in Mexico is all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution".
"The single largest impediment to seriously impacting the drug trafficking problem in Mexico is corruption," he said.
Only this week, Mexican President Vicente Fox's spokesman accused local police in the border city of Nuevo Laredo of cooperating with drug gangs.
But the government sent hundreds of troops and federal agents, generally seen as less corrupt, to take over the city last weekend and weed out bad cops.
Federal forces have also been sent to other border cities.
And don't you forget it!
Corruption is on both sides of the border.
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