Thread: US should focus on stemming gun flow, Mexico says

US should focus on stemming gun flow, Mexico says
Sat May 24, 2008 9:49pm EDT

MEXICO CITY, May 24 (Reuters) - The chief of Mexico's war on drug gangs said Washington should concentrate on halting the flow of arms to Mexican drug cartels rather than haggle over how much aid to give Mexico's anti-smuggling operation.

Reacting to a vote by U.S. lawmakers to trim an aid package for the drug war, Mexico's deputy attorney general, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said an alternative would be to keep the cash in the United States and use it to curb illegal arms trafficking across the border.

"Some of us were talking, remarking that, well, this (sum of money) is all very well, but why don't we tell the Americans they could spend it on their (border security forces) to stop the flow of arms to Mexico," Santiago Vasconcelos said in remarks on local radio distributed by his office on Saturday.

Santiago Vasconcelos, the point man in Mexico's crackdown on drug smuggling gangs, said 97 percent of the weapons used by Mexican drug gangs came from the United States.

He said Mexico would evaluate whether to accept any U.S. offer of funds and under what conditions.

Mexico is spending $7 billion of its own money to fund its 18-month-old crackdown on the powerful and violent cartels that smuggle Colombian cocaine north to U.S. consumers.

U.S. President George W. Bush had offered to add $1.4 billion in three tranches to pay for surveillance equipment and speedy aircraft, but his opponents in Congress have haggled over the amount and asked that human rights conditions be attached.

The U.S. House of Representatives this month cut the first tranche of the so-called Merida Initiative, named after the Mexican city where it was conceived, to $400 million from $500 million, and the Senate Appropriations Committee put forward a figure of $350 million.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has made the war on drug cartels the centerpiece of his presidency, deploying some 25,000 troops and federal police across the country, but the operation has sparked considerable bloodshed.

Turf wars between rival cartels and battles with the army have killed 1,380 people this year, nearly 50 percent more than the same period last year, according to the attorney general's office. (Reporting by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Peter Cooney)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCr ... SN24299447

Mexico: US should stem arms flow
Sun, 25 May 2008 09:15:19


Mexico's deputy attorney general says the US should focus on halting flow of arms to Mexican drug cartels instead of haggling over aid.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos added on Saturday that the US should keep the cash and try to stop illegal arms trafficking across the border instead of arguing over how much aid to give Mexico's anti-smuggling operation.

US President George W. Bush had offered to add $1.4 billion in three tranches to Mexico's $7 billion to fight drug cartels; however, the Congress reduced the amount calling for human rights conditions to be attached.

US House of Representatives cut the first tranche of the so-called Merida Initiative, named after the Mexican city where it was conceived, to $400 million from $500 million, and the Senate Appropriations Committee put forward a figure of $350 million.

Vasconcelos noted that 97 percent of the weapons used by Mexican drug gangs came from the US, adding that Mexico would evaluate whether to accept any US offer of funds and under what conditions.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed around 2,500 troops and federal police across the country to fight against drug cartels which have killed 1,380 people this year.


http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=57 ... =351020705

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos added on Saturday that the US should keep the cash and try to stop illegal arms trafficking across the border instead of arguing over how much aid to give Mexico's anti-smuggling operation.

Yeah, and Mexico should work to stop illegal immigrants trafficking across the border instead of arguing how much aid they should be given once they get here.[/b]

The fence will slow traffic in both directions! Build the darn fence!

It sounds to me they want the border to be a one way check valve, north bound only.

I agree.. "Hey Jorge Boosh" " Where's the DAMN Fence.... you know what...this aint working,

DC needs to outsource all of it's authority to China and let China secure our borders. The US is NOT capible and grossly incompetant.

I am sure China can do it for 1 Percent of the cost

Originally Posted by MountainDog

It sounds to me they want the border to be a one way check valve, north bound only.

So true MountainDog! They want smuggling into Mexico stopped but an open door policy for people and drugs moving northward.

Believe this means Calderon has lost the drug battle. Mexico grosses an estimated $142 billion annually in the U.S. and Canada, profits from the production, transportation, and distribution of illicit substances.

In addition to drug cartels controlling areas of Mexico, Calderon also has to deal with EPR--the Popular Revolutionary Army (A leftist rebel group responsible for bomb attacks on Mexican oil and gas pipelines), Zapatista National Liberation Army, and Illegal loggers. Last month the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) took over both chambers of the Mexican congress.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Evil unchecked grows. Evil tolerated poisons the whole system."
Jawaharlal Nehru

How many of you read the article about the OBL's screaming because the Border Patrol was checking vehicle's going into Mexico doing just this!