Posted on 01/21/2007 11:20:24 AM PST by NormsRevenge
MADRID (Reuters) - Organized crime is running out of control in Mexico, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told the Spanish newspaper El Pais in an interview published on Sunday.
"Organized crime is getting out of control and is causing serious worries in some regions of the country, like Michoacan," Calderon said. "Murder rates were exceeding those of Colombia at one point."
On Friday Mexico extradited four drug kingpins to the United States, striking a blow against warring cartels that killed 2,000 people last year and have turned large areas into lawless badlands.
President Calderon took office in December and has sent troops and elite police units to tackle drug gangs and halt a surge in violence as rival cartels fight over smuggling routes and drug fields.
Killings linked to drug trafficking in the province of Michoacan have fallen nearly 70 percent from appallingly high figures last month, he said, but he told the newspaper there was a lot more work to do.
Continued collaboration with the United States to fight drug crime was essential, he said.
"The United States, unfortunately, is the biggest consumer of drugs in the world. That fosters this extreme drug-trafficking phenomenon in Mexico," he said.
"It's a very simple equation -- you can't get a significant reduction in drug supply if there's not a significant reduction in demand."
On a surge in the price of staple tortillas, Calderon said he would increase imports in order to discourage speculation and hoarding by traders.
"The complexity of this situation goes far beyond what the Mexican government can do, and I dare say, any government," he said. "Corn has moved from $81 a ton, to nearly $160 in a couple of months.
"We will be severe, firm and relentless in cases of speculative abuse," he said.
The recent price increases in the flat corn bread, driven by soaring U.S. demand for ethanol fuel made from corn, have pushed up inflation and hurt millions of Mexican households that serve tortillas with nearly every meal.
Forty years late?
WOW DID he not get his cut?
"The recent price increases in the flat corn bread, driven by soaring U.S. demand for ethanol fuel made from corn,..."
Is that for real or is this just another 'blame the US for everything' drum beat? What %'age of corn grown in the US is country actually goes toward ethanol versus a couple years ago? Do we really import it from Mexico? Come-on, some Freeper is probably personally responsible. Either that, or its Bush.
Forty years late?""
OR MORE.....
Correction. Organized crime is IN control of Mexico.
Organized crime is running out of control in Mexico, Mexican President Felipe Calderon told the Spanish newspaper El Pais in an interview published on Sunday.
Oh...............
I thought it was "our" president...........
I guess he hasn't figured it out yet.
Nope, for once, this one's for real. It's not that we import much corn from Mexico. It's the other way around. With the price of oil hovering in the neighborhood of sixty dollars a barrel, ethanol is looking very attractive. Plants are going up all over the country. The predicted demand for corn and other feed stock for these plants is going through the roof and so the prices for these commodities are of course doing the same. Thus, it's all George Bushes fault. :)
I wonder if we cannot smuggle some illegals back into Mexico, that should help out the deficit.
Do you suppose he'll stop printing up "how to" books about getting all the USA goodies?
Keep your people home, Mr. Presidente' and the demand will go down!
Not to worry, Bush will be importing them to the United States as soon as he and the Democrat Congress can make it happen.
I think the only hold up at the moment is whether they should build 3 or 6 light rail lines to move the illegals though the desert.
El Capitan Obviouso.
Been that way for centuries.....
I find no fault with that accusation, drug usage here does promote the growth of drug trafficking.
I wonder just how much the magnitude of the problem is responsible for virtual open borders and allegations by some border agents that they've received stand-down orders.
There's got to be more to this than just "cheap" labor and an effort to take pressure off Mexicorruption by taking huge numbers of its volatile population. Giga-dollars, perhaps?
Well THIS is a stop the presses moment! Where has he been for the last 40 or 50 years while the drug problem has migrated from Venezuela and Columbia north, through Mexico and finally capturing Mexico itself.
One of many reasons why illegal Mexican immigrants overflow into the U.S. every day of every year for several decades now! And yet, the U.S. still hasn't built a decent wall along its border with Mexico, and also, the U.S. still continues to not fully enforce all of its laws throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories when dealing with all of the illegal immigration problems!
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