Posted on 11/25/2008 5:39:50 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
(CNSNews.com) – Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said he and his countrymen “regret” and “resent” the construction of a security fence on the border between the United States and Mexico and called for more “intelligent” security between the two countries on Monday.
Zedillo also blamed drug violence largely on Americans’ use of illegal drugs
“I personally find (the fence) profoundly offensive,” said Zedillo, co-chairman of the Brookings Institution’s Partnership for the Americas Commission, which released its report “Rethinking U.S.-Latin American Relations” on Monday.
Zedillo told CNSNews.com that the United States needs to have a “frank discussion” about the role domestic drug consumption plays in the ongoing violence on both sides of the border.
“The point we are making in this report is that the present strategy to combat drug trafficking is failing,” said Zedillo, who appeared at the panel discussion with the co-chairman of the commission, former U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas R. Pickering.
Pickering noted that 90 percent of the guns seized in drug law enforcement operations in Mexico can be traced back to the United States, a statistic also cited by officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in testimony before the House Foreign Affair Committee’s subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in February 2008.
In a report issued in April by the National Drug Intelligence Center, federal, state, and local law enforcement data revealed that major Mexican drug trafficking operations, or DTOs, operate in at least 195 cities in the United States and that 129 of those cities have DTOs that are linked to four of the principal Mexican drug cartels that supply illicit drugs in the United States.
In its National Drug Threat Assessment for 2008, the National Drug Intelligence Center described drug distribution from Mexico into the United States.
“The Southwest Border Region is the most significant national-level storage, transportation, and transshipment area for illicit drug shipments that are destined for drug markets throughout the United States,” the report said.
“Mexican DTOs have developed sophisticated and expansive drug transportation networks extending from the Southwest Border to all regions of the United States,” it added.
It also cited the flow of weapons between the two countries.
“Mexican DTOs and their associated enforcement groups generally rely on firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico to obtain weapons for their smuggling and enforcement operations,” the report said.
“Drug traffickers, firearms smugglers, and independent criminals smuggle large quantities of firearms and ammunition from the United States to Mexico on behalf of Mexican DTOs, who then use these weapons to defend territory, eliminate rivals, enforce business dealings, control members, and challenge law enforcement,” the report added.
“The ATF estimates that thousands of weapons are smuggled into Mexico every year,” reads the Drug Threat Assessment report.
“Firearms are typically purchased or stolen from gun stores, pawnshops, gun shows, and private residences prior to being smuggled into Mexico, where they are often sold for a markup of 300 to 400 percent. Moreover, large caches of firearms often are stored on both sides of the Southwest Border for use by Mexican DTOs and their enforcement groups,” it added.
At the Brookings Institution event, organizers billed the commission’s report as part of the new direction the United States will take in foreign policy and other areas under a Barack Obama administration.
Its recommendations included a path to legal status for illegal immigrants; the lifting of all restrictions on travel to Cuba; taking communist Cuba off the U.S. State Department’s State Sponsors of Terrorism List; and establishing a Renewable Energy Laboratory of the Americas “to promote hemispheric cooperation on developing solar, wind and cellulosic-biomass technologies.”
“The report is about identifying those issues that we believe require a collective work,” Zedillo said.
And we care why?
But, he added, those Cartel kickbacks sure made life good for him and his cronies.
Read the entire article. It’s short. There’s not a single syllable in there about what is wrong witht the fence. It’s all about drugs and guns being the real problem that needs to be tackled. Why can’t the fence be a part of the solution to that particular problem?
amnesty
20 million ILLEGAL aliens are offensive to me.
You know you are from a Third World latrine pit when your leaders and former leaders encourage “deportation” of its citizens
Mexican Illegal Alienism and Amnesty is nothing more than a “deportation” program....and its the lily-white Mexicans who want to deport the Mestizo and Indian populations (where are all the civil rights groups on this??)
Im sure Obammie the commie will take it down. There is a war coming and if anyone thinks you can wait and let someone else fight it for you then you are the problem.
Perhaps he is talking about the fence Mexico has along its southern border.
Well, I find the 20 million+ illegal aliens invading my country offensive, Padre. Not to mention the quiet support and encouragement your corrupt government gives to them.
So what?
“I personally find (the ILLEGAL INVASION) profoundly offensive.” — Benlurkin
Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said he and his countrymen “regret” and “resent” the construction of a security fence on the border between the United States and Mexico and called for more “intelligent” security between the two countries on Monday
If this guy and others ran their own country decently and it was not such a shithole then maybe no fence would be required. Did he think of that?
Americans consider the illegal invasion of our borders to be even more offensive.
Because it interferes with his government’s policy, which Bush refused to confront, of Mexicanizing Los Estados Unidos.
Their government has been so successful and such an inspiration to the world for so many years, that we should be like it, don’t you know?
Blaming Americans for the Mexican drug problems is like blaming the silverware makers for Rosie O’Donnell being fat.
Sniper teams deployed along the border are a more “intelligent” solution ... at least from the cost and environmental impact perspective. But somehow, I don’t think that is what he had in mind.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
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