Pubdate: Thu, 30 Mar 2006
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2006
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: Adam Thomson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Mexico

MEXICO CRITICISES US DRUG-WAR EFFORTS

The US should make a "bigger and more integral effort" in the fight
against drugs, according to the Mexican government's highest-ranking
law official.

"There has to be a direct fight [against drugs] in the US, too, just
like the one we are fighting," Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, the country's
attorney-general, told the FT in an interview. "If they fought like we
are fighting here, they would surely have a problem of violence much
greater than the one we have."

Mr Cabeza de Vaca's frank critique of the US government's efforts in
the war against drugs comes amid a wave of killings in Mexico,
particularly in the cities that border the US. Many of them are
believed to be drugs-related.

The violence has raised concerns on both sides of the border,
influencing the ongoing debate about border security and illegal
immigration. Both issues will be high on the agenda when Presidents
George W. Bush of the US and Vicente Fox of Mexico on Friday continue
a two-day summit in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun together with
Stephen Harper, Canada's newly elected prime minister.

The summit coincides with debate this week in the US Senate over a
range of immigration reforms, including proposals for increased
vigilance along the US's southern border and tougher penalties on US
employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Mr Cabeza de Vaca was quick to say that he and his team have perceived
a healthy change of attitude within the US government on the issue of
drugs, however. "At least they now accept co-responsibility in the
problem," he said. In the past, US policy towards drugs resembled
"that of the ostrich: to bury its head in the sand and blame every one
else".

Even so, more needed to be done on the US side. "It is a problem that
in large part they provoke because they are the main consumers, the
dirty money comes from there and the people who live from drugs are
not here: they are over there selling in the streets."

Mr Cabeza de Vaca defended the Mexican government's policy of pursuing
the leaders of the drugs cartels, which many experts say has fuelled
the drugs-related killings as lower-ranking cartel members fight it
out on the streets for control of the business.

But he warned that the war against drugs would be won only if US
authorities were successful in reducing demand at home.

"The hard facts show an increase in demand, a demand that continues to
place a lot of pressure on the drugs market," he said. "We need to
reduce the pressure coming from drugs consumption in the US, and that
flows of money and arms be controlled."

There was "no indication" that the flow of arms to Mexico from the US
was drying up or that it was being combated effectively, he said.
"There are still around 100,000 points of sale for guns very close to
the border and, well, with every day that passes more and more turn up
here".

"The quantity of deaths in Mexico, the quantity of police that spend
their time combating drugs, the resources that we direct [at drugs]
are, in proportion to our gross domestic product, far superior to
those that the US puts forward," he said.

But that did not mean Mexico was looking for extra funds from its
powerful northern neighbour, he said. "The Mexican government does not
need charity or handouts [from the US]. What we need is genuinely to
share the job at hand and the responsibility." 
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MAP posted-by: Tom