Posted on 01/11/2009 11:24:38 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
MEXICO CITY - Battling with spiraling drug murders and an economic crisis, Mexico's Felipe Calderon will urge U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday to support his drug war and stick to the NAFTA trade deal.
Their meeting in Washington, days before Obama takes office, comes after years of complaints of neglect from Mexico and much of Latin America as President George W. Bush's foreign policy focused on the Middle East and the war on terror.
With Mexico's drug violence exploding and fears that Obama could tamper with the North American Free Trade Agreement to protect U.S. workers, Calderon will try to persuade the Democrat to give Mexico some attention.
Following a tradition that new U.S. presidents meet their Mexican counterparts, Calderon will be the first foreign leader that Obama sits down with since he was elected in November.
Calderon, a dour and strong-willed conservative, is expected to ask Obama for more help fighting the drug cartels who worry foreign investors and are destabilizing Mexico, especially along the U.S. border.
Mexico wants Washington to do more to curb drug-taking in the United States and gun smuggling from north of the border because drug hitmen buy automatic weapons and other guns legally in the United States and bring them back to Mexico to use in the turf battles that killed 5,700 people last year.
"Drug trafficking is not a Mexican problem. It is impacting both societies and the criminals are operating in U.S. territory," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"There is an opportunity for the Obama administration to address the issue from a public health standpoint... We can put people in jail but we are not addressing the root causes of the problem," said Peschard-Sverdrup, who was to dine with Calderon on Sunday evening...
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Note the blatant propaganda in the article about drug gangs buying “automatic weapons” in the USA. If they were stupid enough to buy a Class III weapon, the serial number could be traced immediately back to the buyer. Balderdash.
Mexico is becoming a serious threat to the U.S. with the violence. I believe it is getting worse in border cities. I don’t know what the answer it but I know a lot of innocent people in Mexico are being murdered. There’s a small war going on and a destablized Mexico would be disastorous for us. Imagine how many more will be coming here.
Bush had his priorities.
Mexico’s drug violence should have been handled by MEXICO.
....”that Obama could tamper with the North American Free Trade Agreement to protect U.S. workers”...
one can only hope.
Presidentes ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Calderon: Those border agents are getting to be a pain.
Obammie the Commie: I'll continue the failed policy of the last 8 years.
Calderon: And what is that?
OtC: No fence. Talk in glowing terms about illegal immigrants. Try to legalize them. Ignore the incursions of your police and military forces over our border. Jail as many agents as I can.
Calderon: And what else can I expect?
OtC: I'll open our highways to your truckers and allow them to come and go as they please, thus aiding illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Calderon: Good. Very good. And now, what can I give you in return?
OtC: Just a kilo every year or so. I never did kick that habit, and, luckily, the press never demanded my medical records. Thank God for Bill Clinton, setting that precedent.
(Hey, if the left can say Bush was unqualified because he had been and therefore still was an alcoholic, we can still assume and accuse Obammie the Commie, the self-admitted coke head, that he still uses, until he proves otherwise, and that this usage is an Achilles heel on his ability to govern.)
Mexico is too big to fail. The Great Leader shall bail them out........
Nationwide, the number of killings attributed to organized crime doubled in 2008 to more than 5,000, and no city has been harder hit than Juarez. The murder rate here is five times higher than in 2007, but Garcia says all types of crimes are skyrocketing.
“The criminals got into the schools and robbed all the teachers,” he says. “Told the teachers that they were going to come back for the Christmas bonuses of the teachers. If they don’t do it, they’re going to take hostages of the children and kill the children and kill them. So these teachers didn’t come back to school. Their schools are closed.”
Two of the nation’s most powerful criminal groups, the Juarez and the Sinaloa cartels, are fighting for control of Juarez. Both groups move billions of dollars worth of drugs into the U.S. each year, and their hit men carry high-powered assault rifles, machine guns and even grenades.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98135986
It really is bad and getting worse. They are getting these weapons from somewhere and obviously, not legally.
Why is it always up to the most hated country in the world to answer to...
DO SOMETHING, HELP US, PLEASE, DO SOMETHING, WE NEED MONEY, WE NEED YOU TO GET YOUR GUNS UNDER CONTROL. It’s all your fault that we cannot control our drug runner/murderers.
Blah, blah, blah.
They obviously can’t.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98135986
These people are cold-blooded and ruthless and if something isn’t done, it will spill over here.
Since the topic is drugs, it probably means Obama will be asking where he can buy the best Mexican weed.
I think the author is stretching the truth here, either because of ignorance or willfull propagandist reasons.
Weapons ILLEGALY bought here by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans and then ILLEGALY smuggled into Mexico.
I’m not exactly sure what legalizing drugs would solve. If you could buy drugs at the convenience store, the drugs traffiked from the murderous cartels will be sold just outside said store by someone undercutting the price and with no tax.
See ya just can't win.
Why are they decapitating bodies? Sounds like a tactic taken from our peace loving Mooses.
foreign investors?
Ah ha, key words here.
It does sound like muslim behavior. Could be - who knows?
Yeah, I see lots of people peddlng bootleg liquor outside of establishments that sell alcohol.
/s
More proof positive, no matter the party, no matter the President, the Powers that be (CFR and such) never waver.
When clinton was President he had connections with the major drug cartels, and I think got a rakeoff from Mexico.
It’ll be interesting to see if Obama re-establishes those connections and starts taking his 5%. Clinton was involved in drug smuggling from the time he was a teenager. I don’t know whether Obama ever was involved in the trade. At least I don’t think it’s been suggested that he ever went beyond being a user.
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