Clinton Visits Mexico as Cartel Crackdown Begins
MEXICO CITY, March 25 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a stark mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies had been a failure and contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border.
Clinton’s comments appeared to be the most sweeping by a top Obama administration official accepting a U.S. role in the drug havoc in Mexico.
Mexican officials have long complained that the U.S. government pointed the finger at its neighbor while ignoring how American demand for cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines fueled the trade.
Mexican authorities also blame some of the violence on the flow of American guns, which have been used in about 90 percent of the drug killings, according to both U.S. and Mexican officials.
Clinton’s comments came at the start of a U.S. blitz to improve relations at a moment when Mexico is facing perhaps the greatest challenge to its stability in a century.
Clinton signaled that the U.S. government planned to do more.
Several U.S. lawmakers have already balked at the idea of cracking down on guns on the American side of the border, and the idea could face an uphill battle in Congress.
Seeking to heal the strain, Clinton went out of her way to accept U.S. responsibility for the problem.
“Neither interdiction [of drugs] nor reducing demand have been successful,” Clinton said, noting that “we have been pursuing these strategies for 30 years.”
One of the reasons for the escalating violence in Mexico, he said, was the effectiveness of the U.S. operations against traffickers’ transportation and financial infrastructure.
U.S. authorities, including Clinton, have lauded Calderón for dispatching 45,000 troops to battle the cartels.
SOURCE: The Washington Post
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Categories: Politics Tags: border, bridge, clinton, drug, government, mexico, Obama, policy, u.s., u.s. lawmaker, u.s. war veteran
