Calderón responds to drug war critics

Coffee at Starbucks with the local Los Zetas gang, maybe?

During an appearance today, president Felipe Calderón posed a few rhetorical questions to his audience in response to criticism of the 62 month old drug war which he launched in December 2006:

"What did they want us to do (with the drug cartels)? Greet them? Invite them out? Take them for a cup of coffee? Just what were we supposed to do?"

"When people ask me, when will this war be won, when we will have security, I tell them: The day that we have trustworthy, well-trained, well-paid police, not only at the federal level, but at the state and above all at the municipal level, that's the day we're going to win the battle for public security."

The president said that the three focal points of his drug war strategy have consisted of going after the cartels "head on," ridding security forces of endemic, historic corruption and "professionalizing" local and state law enforcement ranks by training and better pay.

Calderón's off-the-cuff remarks surely won't hurt PAN presidential nominee Josefina Vázquez Mota, who campaigns on almost identical themes.

Why the Calderón strategy has been the right one: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/12/calderon-strategy-has-been-right-one.html.
Why the L.A. Times (and some others) just don't get it: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-la-times-just-doesnt-get-it.html.
Why López Obrador drug war plan would be disastrous for Mexico: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/lopez-obrado-repeats-promise-to-pull.html.
Human Rights Watch, reloaded (yawn . . . ): http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/01/human-rights-watch-reloaded.html.
Mexico is polygraphing a half million cops to see if they're clean: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/weeding-out-corrupt-local-cops-remains.html.