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Obama in MexicoL:
Drugs, US guns highlight talks
MEXICO: US President Barack Obama began his first trip to Latin
America in Mexico yesterday amid promises to help tackle spiralling drug
violence, a first trade dispute, and possible US immigration reform that
could affect millions of Mexicans.
Obama follows a flurry of high-level US visits south of the border in
recent weeks, marking a shift in the US stance toward Mexico’s drug
cartel problem that implies shared responsibility, as violent Mexican
gang activity is increasingly obvious in the United States.
“For the first time in decades, the United States at the
highest-ranking level has agreed to recognise co-responsibility in the
drug trade,” said Rosanna Fuentes-Berain, editor of the Spanish edition
of Foreign Affairs.
During her Mexico trip last month, US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton promised financing for US-made Blackhawk helicopters on top of a
1.4-billion-dollar US plan to help train and equip Mexican anti-drug
forces known as the Merida Initiative, which still needs to be fully
approved by Congress.
“The difference is insubstantial in terms of money,” Fuentes-Berain
said. “What is important is the tone.” Clinton admitted that US demand
for illegal drugs and its inability to prevent illegal weapons smuggling
had contributed to violence in which almost 7,000 have died in Mexico
since the start of 2008.
The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms estimates that around
90 percent of weapons confiscated in Mexico come from the United States.
While a US curb on weapons sales remains highly controversial, the US
Senate voted this month for a 550-million-dollar package to stop the
southward traffic of guns and money, and top US officials agreed in
Mexico to combine efforts to stop the firearms flow across the
3,000-plus kilometer (2,000-mile) border.
Obama last month announced extra agents for the US border to tackle
the spillover of cartel violence, and also vowed to staunch demand in
the world’s largest consumer of illegal narcotics.
Mexico City, Wednesday, AFP |
