Thread: Mexico: U.S. shares responsibility for border violence

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/ ... .chief.ap/


Mexico: U.S. shares responsibility for border violence

Friday, June 10, 2005 Posted: 1:47 PM EDT (1747 GMT)

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) -- Mourners honored Friday a border police chief gunned down just hours after taking over the post, while President Vicente Fox's spokesman said the United States shares some responsibility for the problem of border violence.

About a dozen people gathered early Friday in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, at a wake for assassinated police Chief Alejandro Dominguez, 54.

Dominguez's death shocked a city struggling to deal with a growing war between Mexico's two main drug gangs. Shootouts and multiple murders have become commonplace here, and Dominguez was the only applicant for the job. Many saw the police chief post as a death sentence.

Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said the federal government "recognizes the violence in the northern region. It can't be ignored."

"This is a problem in which the United States also shares responsibility, and that can be solved only through the mutual action of both countries," Aguilar said.

Aguilar conceded that there had been "a breakdown of society in some parts of the country", but that the federal government would be willing to work together with the United States to address the problem.

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza issued a statement decrying "the rapidly degenerating situation along the border and the near-lawlessness in some parts."

Traditionally, Mexico has responded angrily to Garza's statements. But Friday's comments by Aguilar marked an apparent shift toward a more cooperative policy and a readiness to acknowledge the problem.

While Aguilar "categorically and emphatically" denied that authorities had been outstripped by criminals, he said Mexico was willing to work with the United States "in a coordinated way, with shared responsibility" on the problem, which is in part fueled by the cross-border drug trade.

Most of those who dared attend Dominguez's wake early Friday refused to speak to reporters because they said they were too afraid. Two of his grown children asked that their names not be published, saying they didn't even include their identities in his obituary.

One son told The Associated Press that the family was against Dominguez taking the police chief job, but that his father believed he could help the city.

He refused to discuss who might have killed his father.

Flowers surrounded Dominguez's closed casket, and a handful of people quietly prayed while his children received guests.

A Mass was scheduled for later Friday, and then the body was to be cremated. No funeral was planned.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Dont even make it into our problem. This is Mexico's breakdown in society, not ours. Mexico has all the low-lifes running drugs all over the place.