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 ...
Talk,Talk,Talk,Talk,Talk, and we don’t heard any plans to back it up.
Assuming they don't deface/destroy it.
But why buy an expensive Class III weapon in the US, when you can get a select fire AK-47 on the world market for $100-150. They could also get US Made weapons, captured by various groups, from friendlies we provided them to, or Chinese clones of the same. (China makes/made an M-16 "clone" but never used it themselves, I put "clone" in quotes because there are minor differences, some of which are improvements over the old M-16 models they were cloned from) We also provided M-16s to the Palestinians, which have been showing up in various Not Good hands.
The LAST place anyone would want to buy fully automatic weapon is on the US retail market. A quick Google showed an AK for about $1,500, an M-16 Carbine for $17,000. Yea, them druggies are just itching to spend 10-20X what they could spend elsewhere.
From the article, "Drug trafficking is not a Mexican problem. It is impacting both societies and the criminals are operating in U.S. territory."
This cannot be overstated, and more Americans must either stop being in denial about the amount of crime that has spilled into our nation, or be made aware of it. While 5,700 murders in Mexico during 2008 have been attributed to drug gang violence, thousands more have occurred on US soil during this period.
As for any possibility of immigration reform, the current economic crisis enveloping our nation controls the discussion. It would be political suicide for any US President, Democrat or Republican, to try to force immigration reform upon our nation with 13.5 million Americans recently unemployed or underemployed.
The gravity and reality of the situation could force Obama to employ deportation measures similar to those undertaken by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Eisenhower. A deepening economic crisis will add greatly to the number of Americans opposed to amnesty for illegal immigrants, or any immigration reform that allows legal immigrantation be placed ahead of the needs of Americans.
The longer the folly of the “War on Drugs” goes, the more I am convinced our police, trial lawyers, prosecutors, the courts, and the prisons are working in tandem to keep the War on Drugs alive as their livelihoods are dependent upon it.
Yeah, you’re are right. I don’t see that happening either. I just thought I would share the mindset of the person that made the comment.
“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...”
The root? Mexico. SECURE the border!
And Calderon wants more money! That billion and half we just sent didn’t make a dint in their corruption.
Not that illegals aren't a problem, but if you look at the number of murders and the per capita murder rate, it's easy to see that what you are saying here is simply not true. The number of murders has actually declined in recent decades. There were 16,929 murders in the US in 2007, 18,208 in 1997, 20,096 in 1987, and 19,120 1977. Our murder rate hasn't been going up. The number of murders has declined, and the rate per 100,000 citizens has declined even more because our population has grown. There were 8.8 murders per 100,000 in 1997, compared to only 5.6 per 100,000 in 2007.
“There were 8.8 murders per 100,000 in 1997....”
Whoops, I meant in 1977. In 1997 there were 6.8 murders per 100,000.
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