US Ambassador to Mexico Walks

[JBeukema]

Carlos Pascual, the US ambassador to Mexico, has resigned after a dispute with Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, over the handling of the war against drug gangs.
Saturday's announcement came as Barack Obama, the US president, began a five-day trip to Latin America, where he is visiting El Salvador, Brazil and Chile, to shore up ties with the region.
The diplomatic spat was triggered after state department documents published by WikiLeaks showed Pascual criticising Mexico for its lack of co-ordination in operations targeting cartel leaders.

US ambassador to Mexico resigns - Americas - Al Jazeera English

 

[waltky]

Steppin' on Mexican toes...

US law enforcement role in Mexico drug war surges
3/19/2011 — Arturo Beltran-Leyva, a notoriously cruel cartel boss and one of Mexico's most wanted criminals, threw a riotous Christmas party two years ago with Grammy-winning musicians, prostitutes, and lavish food and drinks.

U.S. law enforcement agents in Mexico, electronically spying on Beltran-Leyva, relayed detailed information to U.S.-trained Mexican Navy Special Forces, who crashed the fiesta. After a 90-minute shootout, the cartel leader fled with a gut wound. U.S. detectives next electronically tracked Beltran-Leyva, 48, to a posh apartment in nearby Cuernavaca. With their help, 200 Mexican Special Forces rolled in on tanks and rappelled from helicopters. The next morning, photos of Beltran-Leyva's bloody body, plastered with bank notes, were splashed across Mexican front pages.

At the time, it was considered a rare success in U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation. Now, unprecedented numbers of U.S. law enforcement agents work in Mexico, and high-profile arrests occur monthly. U.S. drones spy on cartel hideouts, while U.S. tracking beacons pinpoint suspect's cars and phones. "Yes, we're tracking vehicles, yes, we're tracking people," says Brad Barker, president of HALO Corporation, a private security firm that, among other things, helps rescue kidnapped people in Mexico. "There's been a huge spike in agents down there."

The bilateral cooperation is touching off Mexican sensitivities about sovereignty, while stoking U.S. debate about the wisdom of inserting American operatives so deep into the fight. More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug trafficking violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown four years ago, and the killing of a U.S. agent last month prompted the U.S. Congress to schedule hearings into the role of American personnel.

The U.S. agents generally provide intelligence and training, while Mexicans do the hands-on work. Neither side will say exactly how many agents are in Mexico, citing security concerns, but The Associated Press was able to identify several hundred, using the Freedom of Information Act, federal budget requests, government audits, congressional testimony and agency accountability reports.

More US law enforcement role in Mexico drug war surges - World news - Americas - msnbc.com

See also:

Obama Pledges $200 Million to Fight Drug Trafficking in Central America
March 22, 2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States will provide $200 million to Central America to combat drug trafficking and gangs as he promised closer cooperation with the region.

The president made the announcement Tuesday during a joint news conference with El Salvador President Mauricio Funes in San Salvador, the final stop on his three-country Latin American tour. President Obama said the money will help El Salvador to improve basic security and the rule of law but will also be used to reach young people to give them a better path to economic prosperity. He said people in Central America need to be able to find opportunity in their home countries so they don't feel like they have to travel north to provide for their families.

The president also addressed immigration reform in the United States. He said comprehensive immigration reform, including addressing the millions of undocumented workers in the U.S., is the right thing to do. He said he will continue to push for it but acknowledged that the politics of the issue are not easy. The United States has a significant number of immigrants from El Salvador - both legal and illegal. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend an official dinner at the presidential palace Tuesday evening. The president's five-day visit to Latin America has been overshadowed from the start by the air strikes Libya, and just before the news conference started Tuesday the White House said Obama would be cutting his visit short to return earlier to the United States on Wednesday.

President Obama arrived in El Salvador from Chile. While there he said Chile has shown the world that a transition from a dictatorship to democracy can take place peacefully. He said the United States is ready to help Chile resolve human rights violations committed during the 1973 to 1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Mr. Obama also spoke about Cuba, saying authorities there must take meaningful actions to respect the basic rights of the Cuban people. In 2009, his administration eased travel and money-transfer restrictions on Cuban-Americans with relatives on the island. But, a decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba remains in effect. Mr. Obama has said in the past the embargo will stay in place until Havana takes steps toward democratic reforms.

Source

 

[Two Thumbs]

The UN should declare war on Mexico just to be consistent.
Corrupt to the core.
unconcerned about it's people.
At war with a rebel force.

hell, that's a trifecta

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Just legalize Drugs in Mexico and legalize Marijuana here in the U.S. That would cut down on most of the smuggling & violence. Just let Mexicans produce and sell their Drugs legally. If we don't want the other Drugs in our country then it's our responsibility to keep them out. Mexicans clearly like producing and selling Drugs. It's big business for them. Legalizing them would probably create Millions of Jobs in Mexico. And the Mexican Government could Tax them and make a bundle of cash themselves. There really would be much less violence in Mexico if they just went ahead and legalized drugs. Hey that's just my opinion anyway.

 

[Coastal Nole.]

love me some Mexico. PV is a blast. Guadalajara is lovely as well. the drive from PV to Guadalajara is unlike anything in the states. Guad also is where a ton of the super old school Aztec treasure is housed, A lot like DC, really cool museum's, totally worth seeing.

You all are concentrating on a very small area of Mexico. Same as if we just zoned in on East LA, it wont be very inviting. The rest of the country is actually chill. Time Share is also huge in Mexico, lots of overseas money in that Country, they wont let that just up and leave over night.

 

[Two Thumbs]

love me some Mexico. PV is a blast. Guadalajara is lovely as well. the drive from PV to Guadalajara is unlike anything in the states. Guad also is where a ton of the super old school Aztec treasure is housed, A lot like DC, really cool museum's, totally worth seeing.

You all are concentrating on a very small area of Mexico. Same as if we just zoned in on East LA, it wont be very inviting. The rest of the country is actually chill. Time Share is also huge in Mexico, lots of overseas money in that Country, they wont let that just up and leave over night.

And a murder rate that is 2nd to none!!

 

[waltky]

So what, like we're supposed to feel sorry for him?...

Mexican drug lord's family: He's suffering in jail
3/22/2011 — The imprisoned "godfather" of Mexican drug trafficking is looking more like a grandfather these days, with cataracts, deafness, ulcers and a hernia, his family wrote in a rare open letter to Mexico's top police official Tuesday.

The wife and children of imprisoned drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, 67, said in a letter to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna that Felix Gallardo is not getting the proper medications for his multiple ailments and is being mistreated in prison. The letter was published as an almost full-page ad in Mexico City newspapers.

"For more than three years, without any justification, prison authorities have kept him segregated, isolated and without contact with other inmates, and have prevented him from participating in any physical, sports or educational activities," according to the letter, in which the family also gave their address: in a swanky southern Mexico City neighborhood.

Historically, the families of top Mexican drug traffickers seldom, if ever, make public statements or publish their addresses, though authorities often know where they live. By tradition, relatives are not usually targeted by law enforcement officials unless there is hard evidence they participated in the drug trade or laundered drug money, and occasional police raids on the homes or detentions of traffickers' relatives have drawn criticism and even retaliatory attacks from crime gangs.

In a rare 2004 protest, about 100 people who identified themselves as wives and relatives of drug suspects demonstrated outside the Mexican Congress to demand better conditions at the Altiplano maximum-security prison just west of Mexico City, the same facility where Felix Gallardo is being held. The protesters would not identify the inmates they were related to, however.

But Felix Gallardo's family said they were moved to publish the open letter — in which they asked for a meeting with Garcia Luna — because they claim he is being held in "inhuman" circumstances in a special lockdown section amid "unhealthy conditions, humidity, a lack of ventilation, bad odors and darkness." Arrested in 1989, he is serving a 40-year sentence on drug-trafficking, bribery and weapons convictions.

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[waltky]

Sounds more like he shot himself in the foot...

In pushing for ouster of US ambassador to Mexico, did Calderón shoot the messenger?
March 25, 2011 - Instead of praise, Mexican President Felipe Calderón has come under criticism in the press and even from an ex-president over the resignation of the US

When US Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual stepped down March 19 following public ridicule from Mexican President Felipe Calderón, it appeared a score between two outsized personalities had been settled. It also seemed that President Calderón's image as a tough nationalist could be on the mend, after suffering in recent weeks from revelations that US security forces permit guns to flow into Mexico in order to track traffickers through Operation Fast and Furious, and also that Calderón had authorized US drones to fly deep into Mexico unbeknownst to Mexico's Congress.

But rather than cheering the departure of Mr. Pascual – a man some believed disdained this country – Mexican columnists, academics, and even an ex-president turned a critical eye on Calderón. The resignation did little to calm outrage over recent bilateral impasses with the United States, and has instead underscored the intense tug-of-war that Calderón is in between Washington and the Mexican public.

To add to the frustration, which for now is mostly mounting on the Mexican side, Pascual may not quickly be replaced, as a lengthy and politicized process to choose his successor is expected. All of this raises doubts that Pascual’s departure will improve US-Mexico relations or Calderón's image as he gears up for a tough reelection campaign next year. “Pascual’s resignation could lead to a modification in style but not substance in bilateral relations,” respected historian Lorenzo Meyer wrote yesterday in Spanish-language Reforma newspaper. He likened the current situation to 1927, when the recall of a US ambassador failed to stop the United States from imposing its interests regarding oil above those of Mexico.

Problems mount for Calderón