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Mexican officials condemn travel warning by U.S.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20050128-9999-1n28...
By Sandra Dibble
January 28, 2005
Associated Press
From Mexico City to the California border, Mexican authorities yesterday condemned a U.S. State Department warning Wednesday urging Americans to take
precautions when visiting northern Mexico.
TIJUANA ? From Mexico City to the California border, Mexican authorities yesterday condemned a U.S. State Department warning Wednesday urging
Americans to take precautions when visiting northern Mexico.
Interior Minister Santiago Creel said in a nationally televised interview that the U.S. administration "went too far, without a doubt" in its alert
stating that violence, murder and kidnapping placed U.S. visitors at risk.
"Here, it's Mexicans who are in charge, we're neighbors, we're partners in a free trade agreement, but that's it," Creel said. The United States, he
added, "should also be trying to arrest the drug lords there."
The public announcement, as the warning is called, was issued from Washington and acknowledges the "overwhelming majority of victims of violent crime
are Mexican citizens."
But a State Department spokesman said yesterday that 27 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in recent months on the northern border; two are dead, 11
are missing and 14 are safe. Most of the kidnappings have occurred across from Texas in Nuevo Laredo.
The alert expires April 25, but it can be extended. It is the sixth such advisory for Mexico since 1999. Others have been prompted by incidents
ranging from a hurricane to a volcano to rule changes for importing vehicles.
In Baja California, the alert prompted a protest from Gov. Eugenio Elorduy, freshly returned from a trip promoting his state in Southern California.
He said from Mexicali, the state capital, that the recommendations are "unfair and without basis."
Foreign investments and growing tourism are proof that people feel secure in his state, Elorduy said.
"What is the United States doing about combatting drug consumption?" he asked in challenge to U.S. officials.
In Tijuana, Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon said the warning "without a doubt, will affect us," by decreasing tourism. He added: "The incidence of problems
experienced by U.S. citizens, is very, very low."
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Mexico angered by U.S. criticism of drug war
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27414277.htm
28 Jan 2005
By Alistair Bell
MEXICO CITY, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Mexico warned the United States not to interfere in its affairs on Thursday after criticism by Washington over
lawlessness along the border.
Interior Minister Santiago Creel rejected charges by the U.S. ambassador in Mexico that Mexican police were losing the battle against crime in the
area, and Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez discussed the matter with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone, government sources said.
Creel said the fight against organized crime on Mexican soil was a matter only for President Vicente Fox's government, which launched an assault last
week against gangs taking orders from jailed drug lords.
"Here, Mexicans are in charge. We have friendly and neighborly relations and we are partners in a free trade agreement but that's it," Creel told the
Televisa television network.
Mexico was angered by the U.S. ambassador's letter on Wednesday. That was compounded by a State Department travel alert warning Americans of increased
murders and kidnappings in Mexican border cities.
The economies of Mexico and the United States have become closely linked since the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force in 1994.
But Mexico, which lost half of its territory to the United States in a 19th-century war, is still sensitive to anything it suspects is U.S.
interference in domestic matters.
BORDER SECURITY
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said in his letter to Mexican government leaders that Mexican security forces were failing to control crime in the violent
border area.
"I worry that the inability of local law enforcement to come to grips with rising drug warfare, kidnappings and random street violence will have a
chilling effect on the cross-border exchange, tourism and commerce so vital to the region's prosperity,"
In Nuevo Laredo, a key trade hub south of Laredo, Texas, more than 20 U.S. citizens have been abducted or simply disappeared in recent months, in a
wave of kidnappings linked by investigators to marauding drug gangs.
Relations between the two countries cooled when Fox refused to back the Iraq war, but Mexico hopes President George W. Bush can push an immigration
plan through Congress that would give temporary work permits to millions of undocumented Mexicans.
U.S. officials have frequently praised Fox's government for tightening the border since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Analysts said the disagreement over drug wars was unlikely to affect Mexican cooperation on security as a closure of the border after any terrorist
attack would badly damage the Mexican economy, reliant on exports northward.
"At the end of the day, Mexico can't afford to have an incident perpetrated in the United States by someone who entered through Mexico," said Armand
B. Peschard-Sverdrup of the CSIS think tank in Washington.
Fox's office said in a statement Mexico "does not accept the judgment or labeling of any foreign government" about its fight against drugs and Creel
accused the United States of doing too little against drugs on its side of the border.
"I wish there were more drug capos in U.S. jails, and that (the United States) would deal with the problem of consumption which is causing drug
trafficking," he said.
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Border troubles spark U.S.-Mexico tiff
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050128-065716-9616r....
By Eliza Barclay
UPI Correspondent
Mexico City, Mexico, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Tensions flared between Mexico and the United States this week after U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza
sent a letter to the Mexican secretary of foreign relations and the attorney general suggesting that the country was not doing its part to fight
violence at the border. Garza's letter, which was released to reporters, also noted that kidnappings of Americans near the border are on the rise.
"Although Americans do not appear to be the specific targets of the crimes, the elevated level of violence generally has resulted in greater risks to
the thousands of American citizens visiting and passing through the border region every day," Garza's letter read. "Increased numbers of murdered and
kidnapped Americans in recent months bear this out."
U.S. consular officials say 27 U.S. citizens have been abducted along the Mexican side of the border over the past six months and two have been
killed.
On the heels of Garza's letter, the State Department updated its Consular Information Sheet on Mexico and issued a public announcement warning
American citizens and travelers of increased risk in traveling around the U.S.-Mexican border.
Garza's letter and the State Department's public update stoked resentment in Mexico, as three major Mexican public figures, including President
Vicente Fox, lobbed back brusque retorts to the United States for its statements.
"Mexico laments the tendency to alarm that the public announcement to U.S. citizens could release," President Vicente Fox said in a statement late
Wednesday.
Fox added that both countries are responsible for violence and other problems at the border and, "Mexico and the United States share successes as well
as errors."
Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called the travel alert "exaggerated and outside the scope of reality."
But some analysts say that the true situation at the border is a matter of perception.
"Both sides have a high degree of suspicion of each other," Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, told United Press
International. "Both sides are blowing (the situation at the border) up again, as they have in the past, but it's true that it's dangerous territory."
Hakim also noted that Mexico's blustery reaction came at a time when the country is just entering an election campaign cycle, and many candidates are
eager to show that they will not be pushed around by the United States. The campaigns for the July 2006 presidential election will not officially
begin until the fall, but leading candidates from Mexico's three primary parties -- the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the National Action
Party, or PAN, and the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD -- have been posturing since early 2004.
On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, the leading PAN candidate for the 2006 presidential election, said in an interview on the nation's
largest channel, Televisa, the warning "went too far."
"Why didn't they say anything a week ago when I was in that meeting with the secretary of homeland security?" Creel asked, referring to the Jan. 17
discussion with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. "He didn't express any concern to me. On the contrary," Ridge complimented Mexico's
efforts to crackdown on violence and drug trafficking by the border, Creel added.
But since Creel and Ridge's meeting, Mexico has been slapped with the harsh reality that many of the country's most notorious drug lords continue to
be formidable power brokers -- even from behind bars.
Six prison guards were found shot to death outside a high-security prison Jan. 20 in the border city of Matamoros in the Mexican state of Taumalipas.
The slaying occurred a week after the Mexican Army laid siege to another maximum-security outside Mexico City where two drug cartel leaders were
thought to be joining forces.
Organized crime authorities said that the two leaders, Tijuana cartel leader Benjamin Arellano Felix and Gulf cartel leader Osiel Card##as, had gained
control of La Palma and were planning to gang up on Mexico's third major cartel, the Juarez cartel.
The series of events precipitated a national public standoff between the Mexican government and the country's most powerful drug kingpins, generating
much criticism in the Mexican press that the government was not strong enough to fight back.
"All the news coming out of Mexico now is negative," Hakim said. "No wonder Mexico was defensive when the U.S. criticized it."
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Bruce R Leech
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Well said Grover the system is bad on both sides of the border.they pass the blame back and forth but nether really wants to fix the problems.
the U.S wore on drugs is a joke.
Bruce R Leech
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Dave
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| Quote: | Originally posted by grover
Doesn't he know the prisons up here are full of USERS, not dealers??? |
If I lived in a society that punished USERS, I would think twice about USING. (Unless I enjoyed going to jail.)
IF USERS didn't, then DEALERS wouldn't deal and SMUGGLERS wouldn't smuggle.
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Bruce R Leech
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Dave
| Quote: | Originally posted by grover
Doesn't he know the prisons up here are full of USERS, not dealers??? |
If I lived in a society that punished USERS, I would think twice about USING. (Unless I enjoyed going to jail.)
IF USERS didn't, then DEALERS wouldn't deal and SMUGGLERS wouldn't smuggle. |
sounds nice and simple, and I wish it were so but in the real world things just don't work that way.
Bruce R Leech
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Bajalero
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Too bad drug trafficking has reached a point where it supports a socio-economic base in either country. I don't have the answer to this problem but I
believe Mexican dependence on the cash flow from narcotics is equal or more important to them as keeping the illegals bringing back US dollars to
support their economy.
But is it as important as the tourist dollar?
We'll see.
I think this recent "public service announcement" from the state dept. is the first part of the heat to be turned up on Mexico and its transparent
effort to do something about the flow north of drugs. It is moreso though a message to the Mexican government to get control of your country.
(Remember , terrorism is still an issue) . Most who have traveled the peninsula know that the military checkpoints are a joke . You're more likely to
get ripped off for some spare change in your vehicle than busted for drugs if you indeed had them. And if they did find something they weren't happy
with , I'm sure a good mordida would take care of any problem. Jeez, they got military personnel with machine guns, running all over every square inch
of Baja now, and the flow of drugs is increasing! They are probably there to insure movement.
Since 9/11, tourism has dropped off dramatically in Mex and especially Baja .
You can hear the squeal in the reactions to the state dept. release from the Mexican spokespersons. I think that squeal is more than just a fear of
Mexico losing more tourism dollars but is evidence that US policy is affecting someones business.
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Bruce R Leech
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grover I agree with most of what you say. The only point I am wondering about is you say that Illegal drugs are a big part of the economy. and they
are in the underground economy but that dose not benefit society. wear as if drugs were under federal control they would.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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FrankO
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Grover
that's a "great" cut and paste but not very original. I think you are more capable than that. That's the kind of pablum people on both sides churn
out. I am not going to counterpoint each statement but if I cared to it'd be easy to do just from personal experience.
Might as well be talking religion.
Union thug.
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