Thread: Drug wars loom over Clinton agenda in Mexico

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6340440.html

Drug wars loom over Clinton agenda in Mexico
By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
March 25, 2009, 10:02AM


WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton set out for to Mexico to pursue a broad U.S. diplomatic agenda that will be overshadowed by spiraling drug violence there and fears of greater cross-border spillover.
A day after the Obama administration announced it would send more money, technology and manpower to secure country's Southwestern frontier and help Mexican authorities in their battle against drug cartels, Clinton was to depart today on a two-day trip to Mexico City and Monterrey aimed at bolstering anti-narcotics cooperation.

U.S. officials say they do not want relations with Mexico to be dominated by the violence, which has spread from the border region on the Mexican side into some U.S. border states. The officials maintain that Clinton also wants to discuss trade, climate change and the global financial crisis in her meetings.

Among the contentious issues, new Mexican tariffs on 89 U.S. products imposed last week in retaliation for a U.S. decision to cancel a cross-border program that gave Mexican truckers access to U.S. highways, a move that could affect about $2.4 billion in annual trade.

Yet U.S. officials acknowledge that the violent battle between Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government and the cartels, along with bloody turf battles among the traffickers, are the most urgent issues the two countries face. Clinton's talks are designed in part to encourage Mexican authorities to do more in response to the stepped up U.S. effort, they say.

The escalating violence has set off alarm bells in the U.S. and triggered a State Department travel alert last month that compared recent confrontations between Mexican authorities and the cartels to "small-unit combat." Mexican officials say the violence killed 6,290 people last year and more than 1,000 in the first eight weeks of 2009.

It has also led to a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some Southwestern U.S. cities, prompting calls from state and local officials for troops to be sent to the border.

Clinton's trip marks the start of several high-level meetings on the matter. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder are to meet with Mexican officials in early April before President Barack Obama is expected to visit Mexico ahead of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration rolled out a multi-agency plan to protect the border, including the deployment to the border of nearly 500 federal agents and support personnel, building on efforts begun during the Bush administration. However, officials did not say where the additional agents would come from or how long they would stay in their new assignments.

"If the steps that we've taken do not get the job done, then we will do more," Obama said Tuesday during a prime-time news conference.

Obama said the U.S. needs to do more to prevent guns and cash from flowing back to the cartels.

"That's part of what's financing their operations. That's part of what's arming them. That's what makes them so dangerous," he said. "And this is something that we take very seriously and we're going to continue to work on diligently in the months to come."

Mexico once would have bristled at the prospect of the U.S. government sending more agents to the border, especially National Guard units.

But on the eve of Clinton's visit, Mexico's top diplomat was full of praise for the measures.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa described what she called "a new era of cooperation" between the two countries.

"These are really important actions to support the frontal battle that this administration is carrying out," Espinosa said, noting the U.S. government has said it is open to discussing the measures with Mexican officials.

Mexico's former top anti-drug prosecutor, Samuel Gonzalez, said "the signal here from what Secretary Napolitano said is that this is no longer simply a diplomatic or foreign relations issue for them. It is a matter of U.S. national security."

___ Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.

How convenient that, just before Clinton is due to go to Monterrey, the Mexicans finally manage to capture one of the main players in the cartels.

Coincidence or just another part of the big show Calderon is putting on?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first10 ... ce-border/

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