U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow has always been a straight shooter, and he was telling the truth when he characterized Mexico as a "world headquarters of drug trafficking." But it was not a very diplomatic thing to say, and the timing was bad, coming just as President Clinton is about to certify Mexico as a cooperative partner in the war on drugs. "The fact is that the world headquarters of drug trafficking is in Mexico. And that's the truth. Just as the headquarters, the control center, of the Mafia is in Sicily," Davidow told Mexican alumni of the University of Southern California. [continues 600 words]
President Clinton wants to spend $1.6 billion over the next two years trying to turn the tide in Colombia's losing war against leftist rebels and drug traffickers. But critics fear it will suck us into a Vietnam-style quagmire that has claimed 35,000 lives in the past 10 years. Already, Colombia is the third-highest U.S. aid recipient after Israel and Egypt: $289 million last year and $200 million in the current budget. Much of this was spent on creating an elite army battalion, trained and equipped by U.S. Special Forces, and the new money would finance two more. [continues 626 words]
World's Haves, Have-Nots Drift Even Further Apart Every year the United Nations issues a Human Development Report that ranks the quality of life for the world's nearly 6 billion people. It looks not only at incomes but other factors such as health, longevity, literacy and overall well-being. The United States ranks a respectable third out of 174 countries. But before we get too complacent, some sobering facts: While we are richer than Canadians and Norwegians, their quality of life is better than ours. And 20 percent of Americans still live below the poverty line. [continues 590 words]
It's certification time again, an annual rite in which our finger-pointing bruises the feelings of Latin American allies. With that in mind, President Clinton's 23-hour visit to Mexico, was as much designed to impress Congress as it was to soothe Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. By March 1 of every year, the president must certify to Congress whether nations that produce narcotics or serve as conduits for their entry into the United States are ``fully cooperating'' in the drug war. If not, they are subject to automatic trade and economic sanctions. [continues 607 words]
It's certification time again,an annual rite in which our finger-pointing bruises the feelings of Latin American allies. With that in mind, President Clinton's 23-hour visit to Mexico was as much designed to impress Congress as it was to soothe Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. By March 1 of every year, the president must certify to Congress whether nations that produce narcotics or serve as conduits for their entry into the United States are "full cooperating" in the drug war. If not, they are subject to automatic trade and economic sanctions. [continues 610 words]
Mexico is a country where crooked cops are the norm rather than the exception and the worst of them prey on the capital. Authorities in Mexico City admit a daily average of 700 crimes involving weapons and resulting in the deaths of at least six people. That's the official figure. The Mexican press says it's much higher. A metropolis of 8.5 million, Mexico City has 28,000 policemen. They are blamed for muggings, bank robberies, kidnaps, murders, rapes, auto thefts, holdups of passenger buses hijackings of freight trucks. [continues 615 words]
LAST week the United Nations General Assembly promised a fresh assault in. the war on drugs with a coordinated global campaign lasting 10 years. More than 150 delegates ended a three-day drug summit in New York by endorsing a 3 1 1- page-plan for governments to cooperate against traffickers, curb demand, improve judicial cooperation, combat money laundering and reduce the illegal cultivation of narcotic crops by 2008. The document was carefully worded to strike a balance between drug-consuming nations such as the United States and drug-producing countries in Latin America and Asia. But it did not stop their perennial argument about who is to blame for the worldwide drug epidemic. [continues 547 words]
