Texas pledges help to fight Mexico border drug war

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 7/14/05 | Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Texas' attorney general on Thursday pledged his full cooperation with Mexican law enforcement to combat drug violence that has killed hundreds south of the U.S. border this year.

Attorney General Greg Abbott met with top Mexican officials in Mexico City to explore ways to stop the violence between feuding drug gangs that has killed more than 170 people in towns south of Texas this year.

"Dozens of people are dead because this drug war has spiraled out of control," Abbott told reporters. "If we fight crime only on one side of the border, the criminals simply shift to the other side."

Abbott spoke to reporters after meeting with Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, and officials including the governor and attorney general of northern Tamaulipas state.

Violence in northern Mexico has soared this year as cartels from the western state of Sinaloa battle local Gulf cartel rivals for control of the lucrative cross-border cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine trade.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government called on Mexico to combat violence on the border, and twice warned U.S. citizens about travel to cities south of the Rio Grande. Mexico told Washington to stay out of its affairs.

Abbott expressed particular concern for security in Nuevo Laredo, south of Laredo, Texas, where 87 people have been murdered this year and some 30 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped since last August.

"We want to do everything we can to eliminate violence ... and keep residents of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo as safe as possible," he said.

Abbott said Texas has allocated $5 million to improve law enforcement communication in border communities since the crisis in Nuevo Laredo began last year, including $1.2 million for the Laredo area.

Governors from states on both sides of the 2,000-mile border are meeting in the Mexican town of Torreon on Thursday and Friday. Crime and border security are high on the agenda.

[NormsRevenge]

The governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger (C) holds his hand to his chest as he stands between the governor of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, Enrique Martinez (L) and Jose Natividad Gonzalez (R) the governor of Nuevo Leon, at a meeting of U.S.- Mexico border governors in the northern Mexican city of Torreon July 14, 2005. This is Schwarzenegger's first official trip to Mexico as governor of California. (Stringer/Mexico/Reuters)

[zarf]

"Dozens of people are dead because this drug war has spiraled out of control,"

Hey! Someone give this guy a medal!

[jayhorn]

"If we fight crime only on one side of the border, the criminals simply shift to the other side."

If we had a credible, non-porous border, we could fight crime on our side without having to worry about the influx of crime coming over from the other side.

[DTogo]

A much better solution the Israeli's have come up with:

[AnimalLover]

BUMP

[NewRomeTacitus]

If little Israel can do that what's stopping the United States?

a. Nothing

b. Fear of alienating a false & hateful "ally"

c. TRAITORS IN HIGH OFFICE

[Know your rights]

"We want to do everything we can to eliminate violence ... and keep residents of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo as safe as possible," he said.

So he wants to legalize drugs? Good man.

[TKDietz]

You forgot the part about major corporations who cut costs by using illegal alien labor and then make huge donations to both political parties lobbying to protect their cheap labor source.

[NewRomeTacitus]

See Who is the Chaeap Labor Lobby for more Conservative vs. NeoCon conflict. One person even attributed something I wrote to someone else (like I care at this point - as long as the message gets across).

This generation of financial leaders trained on the fiscal quarter model are becoming the literal death of us all. They're the ones clamoring for allowing China to get a foothold on our energy resources without any regard for long term repercussions...because they're inherently unable to grasp the concepts of national security or how their actions affect everything on a long term basis.

Government traditionally had a role moderating these greed-spawned schemes when they threatened the nation's security and future but the last few years have found our representatives from both parties jumping in chorus from the marionette strings of the same campaign contributors. We wouldn't be subsidizing our own invasion by ill-educated unfortunates for the sole benefit of the well off if it weren't so.

I want my country back.