Vicente Fox "let's make a deal" proposal going over like a lead balloon

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox's suggestion earlier this week (see post below) of negotiated peace with the drug cartels has people almost lining up to denounce it. Several PAN (National Action Party) officials have done so, and today PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) darling Enrique Peña Nieto joined the chorus, saying that neither he nor his party would ever support such an approach. Peña Nieto has a very good chance of being PRI's 2012 presidential standard bearer.

Francisco Saynez Mendoza, Mexico's Secretary of Marines (pictured), also weighed in today in dangerous Veracruz state, saying that any talk of peace negotiations would be tantamount to "surrender." Mendoza added, "When a conflict is based upon ideological differences between groups in society, there can be negotiated agreements, but when you're talking about organized crime, where there are murders, and attacks against society, there can be no deals -- you have to enforce the law to the fullest extent."

Speaking of the military offensive now underway in Veracruz, Mendoza said "We're going to suppress the violence here by destroying the logistical infrastructure of the criminals -- their supply storage facilities, their money, their weapons, their ammunition. In the past 10 days, violence has decreased 70%, especially right here in the port (of Veracruz)."