Guadalajara -
President Barack Obama arrived in Mexico City this afternoon, his fourth visit to the country since taking office in 2009.
A joint press conference conducted by Mr. Obama and Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto is underway at this hour at the National Palace.
Although both governments have said that Obama's 36 hour visit will cover a "wide range of bilateral concerns," U.S. ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne emphasized earlier in the week that security issues will be of paramount importance.
Today's meeting between the two men comes as Mexico enters month 77 of a drug war launched Dec. 11, 2006.
One of the issues the two leaders are sure to discuss is how the U.S. plans to deal with drug consumption north of the border. On eve of Obama visit to Mexico, U.S. drug czar releases "new strategy," focused on treatment and prevention.
Mexico, Central American governments and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime all concur that U.S. drug demand is fueling domestic instability in the region. Nicaragua: drug traffickers "could overrun us." Ninety percent of all drugs consumed in the U.S. pass through a "triangle of death" which an accident of geography left vulnerable to international traffickers.
The president has acknowledged that U.S. drug demand is responsible for damage done to Mexico and other Latin American nations. The issue took on greater significance in November, when voters in Colorado and Washington approved initiatives which purport to legalize the possession of marijuana for recreational purposes, despite the fact that cannabis remains unlawful under federal statutes. U.S. division on the issue has led to more than a little frustration in this country, where a late 2012 survey showed that 79% are firmly against drug legalization of any type. Mexico's incoming PRI government pays little attention to marijuana efforts in U.S..
On Tuesday the new Institutional Revolutionary Party government of Enrique Peña Nieto arrested the father-in-law of notorious Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, by far PRI's biggest drug war victory in the five months since it took office. Mexico refused U.S. offer to "take out El Chapo Guzmán." Mexican prosecutors say that Inés Coronel Barrera, 45, was a major producer of marijuana in northern Mexico, shipping it across the border near the Agua Prieta-Douglas, Arizona crossing.
American officials have praised the daring operation, but some in this country are troubled by an apparent U.S. double standard on a product which is heavily responsible for Mexico's drug war.
Press conference highlights
Obama: "We look forward to assisting in the war against organized crime in Mexico in any way possible, especially by stemming the southbound flow of guns and cash. We have an enormous investment in this country. We had a wonderful relationship with former president Felipe Calderón, and we look forward to the same with the government of president Enrique Peña Nieto. But it's natural that the new administration is reviewing and reevaluating its domestic security strategy. The bonds between our two countries go beyond political parties."
Peña Nieto: "U.S. sold arms have caused tremendous damage to Mexico, and cost countless lives. We have to stop the trafficking in arms originating in the United States. We need American help."
Peña Nieto: "What is our 'new strategy'? To fight drug trafficking and the other business of organized crime - extortion, kidnapping, executions - by any and all means and tactics at our disposal. But we have also pledged to reduce the levels of violence in this country. Those two goals are not in conflict. They are entirely compatible, and it's possible to achieve both."
Mexican drug traffickers find ready assistance in mules carrying American passports
The Second Amendment, NRA leave their mark in Mexico
El País asks, "¿Quién desarma a EE UU?" - Who will disarm the United States?
U.S. guns play key role in Mexico's raging drug war
"Dear friends in the United States - please, no more assault weapons to Mexico"
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
You guys should consider arresting and charging him for gun-running before he leaves the country, and please, keep him there awhile - seven to twenty should be about right. If he's cooperative and talks, maybe implicating Attorney General Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Napalitano, then consider reducing his sentence and housing him in a minimum security lock-up somewhere near the US border on humanitarian grounds.
ReplyDeleteAnd here would be the screaming headline all over Mexico:
Delete"Detienen a Obama el ejército mexicano; no habrá fianza - Mexican army arrests Obama; ordered held without bail."
Yeah Fast & Furious, Benghazi etc... favorite slobberbones for right wing pitbulls. Small arms come south from unregulated gun shows and dealers selling to cartel smurfs, military grade weapons like grenades come from Central American sources in the military. I'm sure the above poster believes Mexico's problems would be solved if only the average Jose could buy weapons at his local OXXO, but certainly not a pack of marijuana cigarettes.
DeleteYou're correct on both points, but a brief footnote about hand grenades, which are very much a part of Mexican drug cartel arsenals.
DeleteYes, most grenades do enter Mexico from Central America. But they arrived there in the 1980s, primarily from the United States, during brutal civil wars between left wing and right wing forces (Nicaragua and El Salvado, e.g.). You'll remember which side the Reagan administration backed (Iran-Contra, etc.)
Experts say hand grenades have an almost indefinite shelf life, so most of them are still in good condition. Do narco execution teams actually use them? Ask this guy:
http://www.mexicogulfreporter.com/2012/10/puerto-vallarta-police-chief-survives.html.
Oh come on, "Fast & Furious and Bengazi", "right wing slobberbones", ha! Your team running around with their pants around their ankles - again. Typical progessive selective interest - if we pretend it did'nt happen it - then it did'nt happen. And I'm not a right winger, anyway.
DeleteGrenades from Reagan, true, but what's the point? 99% of the killings in Mexico are from guns, knives, 2x4 and chainsaw. The twenty thousand disappeared weren't blown up. Don't forget the AK's that came from Nicaragua via Cuba and the old eastern block, and Chinese ammo that the Ortega brothers imported either.
If you could snap you fingers and stop the guns from coming across the US border, do you really think the level of violence would lower in Mexico? I guess the Zetas, CDG, the Michoacanos and the Sinoloans would just settle it in court?
I dont like seeing guns flowing across the border anymore than the Mexican government does. I was pointing out the absurd, and no, I dont "really" think you should have arrested Obama, but watch out for that big stinky pile of irony in the middle of your yard.