Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Posted on 03/15/2006 8:12:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will begin extraditing drug lords wanted in the United States within weeks and expects a violent backlash from the powerful cartels, President Vicente Fox said on Wednesday.
Fox told Reuters the legal process of handing over traffickers on the U.S. government's list had already begun.
"I am confident and convinced that very soon, and I am talking about weeks, we will start the first extraditions of these leaders," Fox said.
"I am sure that will provoke additional violence. ... They will try to retaliate," he said. "It could be judges, it could be government officials, but we will be ready."
Fox, a close ally of the United States, did not say who would be extradited first, or how many, but stressed they were "the big bosses."
He also said they would have to serve their sentences in U.S. prisons. That marks a major policy shift because until recently under Mexican law, drug traffickers had to serve out their prison sentences in Mexico before being put behind bars in the United States.
The United States has been pressing for the extradition of drug kingpins for years but Mexican legislation made it difficult.
Fox said the impending action against traffickers followed a series of Supreme Court rulings that have made extraditions easier.
More than 1,000 people were killed in drug violence across Mexico last year. Cities along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S. border, including Nuevo Laredo, have seen pitched battles between rival gangs, including one with bazookas and machine guns.
The drug gangs have a reputation for brutality.
"I can tell you that without a doubt the Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the most violent, they have the biggest gangs, they are ruthless and they are very well run businesses," a senior official from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in Mexico this week.
COLOMBIAN EXAMPLE
Fox drew a parallel between Mexico and Colombia, where the Medellin cocaine cartel declared war on the government in the 1980s in response to a decision to extradite cartel leaders to the United States.
Hundreds of people died in bombings and assassinations until Colombian police tracked down and killed Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellin cartel.
Colombia was successful in fighting the drug lords, Fox said. "I am sure we will be successful, too."
Fox's government has had high-profile successes in the anti-drug fight, including the arrests of cartel leaders Benjamin Arellano Felix, Osiel Cardenas and Hector Palma, accused of shipping tons of cocaine to the United States.
But many of the top traffickers have continued to run their organizations from prison.
"We have implemented very strict controls in federal jails where these capos (bosses) are," Fox said. "Still, they do operate from Mexico and the real price to pay in justice is if they are extradited."
Despite hundreds of arrests and record seizures on both sides of the border, drugs have continued to pour into the United States and cocaine, heroin and marijuana are widely available in American cities.
In its latest report on international drug trafficking, issued last month, the U.S. State Department said between 70 and 90 percent of the cocaine destined for the United States passed through Mexico.
It's fargin' war!
It's more than that,friend.
Wake up. Realize that this story and the one about ICE is our governments way of telling us citizens what kind of goofy program they have cooked up to mollify the citizenry on the issue of "ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION".
Let the horror of it sink in. Add the fairy tale of "Guest Worker Programs" and a horrifying reality should start to dawn on all of us.
Whatever we might think is no concern whatsoever to them...they've cooked up this nightmare of so-called "remedies" and their minds are made up.
Vinney fox, so much promise when elected. So very little accomplished. Such a waste
crapola,
vinney has accomplished squat other then bitch about the U.S. not wanting his uneducated to help him keep unrest down.
Corruption was and still is the name of the game in our southern neighbor.
a lot of what you say is correct,
BIG money.
Just what we need....more criminals from Mexico. Wonder how many millions of dollars each of their trials will cost. When you see the three-ring circus the government has put on for Mousaoui, Mexican jails for these drug lords sounds much more effective and certainly less expensive for the US taxpayer.
Joe, Vicente Fox has indeed had his critics, but we Mexicans tend to think that he is a man with character and values, just like many Americans think Bush is a man of convictions and does what HE thinks is right. Just as George Bush has found that some of his team has sold out to personal interests, undoubtedly in Mexico, there are team players that have been corrupted. Lets light a light. Cursing the darkness just makes things worse.
"Mark my words; the gig is up."
ChaChing! You hit it. The WOD is a cash cow for State and Local Governments and LEO's. An end to the WOD means a severe reduction in LEO forces, budgets and funding to states.
Why in the hell would any of those leaders want that to happen to them and their underlings?
Screw Vicente Fox and screw Mexico. They should have been sending us drug lords, cop killers and murderers all along. This is being done ONLY to make GWBush's amnesty and other guest worker scams look good.
Damn right I'm cynical. Build a fence or be begone, I have no use for you!
My view from the USA is Vicente Fox is worse than other presidents of Mexico because he has sent us more illegal aliens. He promotes illegal immigration and so do his cabinet members. They are brazen about it
I have only one concern about Mexico. How many illegal aliens are you going to push into the United States this year? Go fix Mexico and stop imposing on us.
ping
That's debatable.
Fox drew a parallel between Mexico and Colombia, where the Medellin cocaine cartel declared war on the government in the 1980s... Hundreds of people died in bombings and assassinations until Colombian police tracked down and killed Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellin cartel.
Colombia was successful in fighting the drug lords, Fox said. "I am sure we will be successful, too."
Then forget about extraditing them and just follow Colombia's example.
Ping!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant!
I agree.
IIRC, the only reason Mexico will extradict prisoners to the US is with the stipulation that the prisoners not be given the death sentence. I wonder if this is in the agreement with Mexico? Anybody know?
That's correct.
I wonder if this is in the agreement with Mexico?
I don't think this involves any crimes that would involve the death penalty. It looked to me like they were going to be charged with drug trafficking offenses.
Backlash Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
The author of that crap didn't do their homework. He's closer to castro.
V. Fox is trying too hard to make these drug lords look like the big guys. We just need to leave them there if we can't toast them.
We have helped V. Fox by relieving his country of all his poor people by putting them on our welfare systems so now he wants us to feed, clothe and house their prisoners. This is going to cost millions with interpreters. I guess all prison guards will have to learn Spanish. I wonder if this is coming from Attorney General Gonzales.
I'll bet there is no way we could extradite them back to Mexico. If we can't give these drug lordes the death penalty, we should extradite them back.
By the way, DD, would you by any chance know if any of the Mexicans that the International Criminal Court, (ICC) said had to have a new trial, have been executed? These 50 Mexicans were all on death row for different crimes.
t
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.