Posted on 03/06/2009 10:16:24 AM PST by AuntB
The Mexican president has blamed US "corruption" for hampering his nation's efforts to combat violent drug cartels.
Felipe Calderon also told the AFP news agency that the main cause of Mexico's drug gang problems was "having the world's biggest consumer [of drugs] next to us".
"Drug trafficking in the United States is fuelled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities," he said on Wednesday.
The Mexican president launched a massive assault on drug cartels after entering office in late 2006 but the cartels have responded with campaigns of violence and intimidation that left 6,000 dead in 2008 alone and around 1,000 in 2009 so far.
Calderon acknowledged some Mexican officials had helped the cartels but said the US should ask itself how many of its own officials were implicated.
"It is not an exclusively Mexican problem, it is a common problem between Mexico and the United States," he said.
"I want to know how many American officials have been prosecuted for this [corruption]."
Border concerns
Mexico has deployed thousands of troops in a bid to quell drugs violence [Reuters] Calderon, who has deployed more than 36,000 troops to the troubled Mexico-US border regions to crack down on violence, also said that the US must halt the flow of weapons into Mexico, where the police and security services are often outgunned.
But he said recent talks with Barack Obama, the US president, had provided "a clearer, more decisive response, one which matches the magnitude of the problem which we face," he said.
Mexican border cities, such as Ciudad Juarez have suffered the brunt of the violence prompting concerns in Washington that the killings and attacks could cross over into the US.
On Wednesday at least 20 people were killed during a prison riot in the city sparked by violence between rival gangs.
Mexican authorities have said they plan to have around 7,500 troops deployed in Ciudad Juarez by the end of this week in a bid to quell the violence, along with 2,000 in the rest of Chihuahua state.
Calderon's comments come as Admiral Mike Mullen, head of the US military, is due to visit Mexico this week as the US is to step up military and other assistance to Mexico in its battle against the cartels.
In February the US department of justice said US and Mexican authorities had arrested 750 people over 21 months in an anti-drug sweep, including 52 members of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel.
Remember Mexico votes against us in the UN all the time.
They are a country of socialist/liberals...it's ALWAYS someone else's fault...and the blame is usually put on the only people trying to help.
We need to keep the billions in aid we send Mexico (not to mention the care of their migrant citizens!) and tell them to just shut up!
I bet Oboy is really gonna rip into this guy, just you wait and see.....
“”It is not an exclusively Mexican problem, it is a common problem between Mexico and the United States,” he said.
“I want to know how many American officials have been prosecuted for this [corruption].” “
Build the fence! Build it tall!
Death rasping.
I would have recalled my ambassador to Mexico immediately and would have appointed John Bolton as Secretary of Defense.
We'd be working overtime on SDI, putting Iran out of business and paying attention to our main SA ally: Colombia.
The Monroe Doctrine would be enforced and Cuber would be put on notice to load the Castro Brothers on a boat headed for Miami, or else!
We'd have to face the music as far as Russia and China is concerned and emphatically state that things will change or we'll have to have that showdown now. Too damned bad it didn't happen in 1945!
Then I'd put a padlock on both houses of Congress and tell them as Alberto Fujimori told his parliament: "Leave! You're getting in my way!"
Then I'd probably wake up from this pleasant dream.
Caution. This is Al Jazeera reporting on some AFP reported. Two suspect sources of information right off the bat. We don’t send billions of aid to Mexico, we send nothing, never have, with the exception of the recent Merida initiative funding, which is being paid to fight our drug war. What we do is allow their peons to come here and take advantage to the tune of billions. Calderon is not from the socialist-lib side of Mexican politics, exactly the opposite. He comes under heavy attack domestically for his free market policies. He is significantly to the right of most of the Mexican populace, which voted him (and Fox) in because the PRI was suicidally corrupt, and not for economic reasons. Knowing AFP, and knowing Al Jazeera, I have serious doubts about the accuracy of this story. Countries don’t have friends, they have common interests.
I did enjoy your little dream!
Each state and some cities must take a 'granite-wall-stand' against illegal drugs. Our Judges must impose harsh laws and if need be our legislatures must enact those laws immediately. If I had my way, people who push drugs would face the death penalty first time arrested with no appeal...they deal in death so what's the difference, it is the same trigger for death. Otherwise, all Obama's "a clearer, more decisive response" is just so much hot air. Mexico? The drug cartels pretty much run that country so take them with a grain of salt...La Raza is culpable...
“We don’t send billions of aid to Mexico, we send nothing, never have, with the exception of the recent Merida initiative funding, which is being paid to fight our drug war. What we do is allow their peons to come here and take advantage to the tune of billion”
Wrong. We send millions EVERY year. EVERY year. Look it up, I’ve posted it over the years.
http://www.heritage.org/research/tradeandeconomicfreedom/bg1186.cfm
“Mexico, whose economy was bailed out by the IMF under U.S. guidance and support in 1994, continues to receive some $15 million in foreign aid from the United States each year. Nevertheless, Mexico voted against the United States 62 percent of the time. “
As for Al Jazeera, this is NOTHING different than Calderon and the rest of his country say. For weeks, they’ve been bitching because ALL their problems are because of our gun laws and drug users.
Pot, meet Kettle...
Pot, kettle, black.
PLUS USAID to Mexico...
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/mexico/
USAID/Mexico manages a $28.9 million annual program of development cooperation in Mexico. For 2003-2008, USAID’s program supports Mexican development and reform initiatives in the following key areas:
>> Felipe Calderon also told the AFP news agency that the main cause of Mexico’s drug gang problems was “having the world’s biggest consumer [of drugs] next to us”...”Drug trafficking in the United States is fuelled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities,” he said on Wednesday. <<
Well, he’s partially right. If it weren’t for the corrupt, open-borders crowd (Obama, McCain, Bush, Kennedy, etc.), law-enforcement would have a much better leg up at drug enforcement. Unfortunately, he’s part of that corruption so its cakehole time for him.
That’s the solution for this whiner.BUILD THE FENCE...(hopefully, with landmines, machine gun nests and rabid dogs)
Well, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it's a rational argument.
Then let's prohibit the sending of American $s to Mexico by Mexican illegal aliens in the US, because the production of so much wealth triggers additional robberies in Mexico...
Sounds like mex-a-hole is trying to get some 0ba-money.
This could be an opportunity, AuntB.
Why don’t we deport about 20 million of his expatriates to Ciudad Juarez to help him with the crime problem?
Am I the only person that sees this guys name and think of the dope dealer on Miami Vice?
Negative. We need those folks from the Eastern part of Germany to rebuild the Berlin Wall. Only this time put it on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
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