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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2006 
Fox Says Mexico to Extradite 24 Traffickers, Rules out Stopping Migrants
 Olga R. Rodriguez - Associated Press
| | President Bush, center, and Mexican President Vicente Fox, left, greet unidentified Canadian business leaders before the start of a U.S.-Canada-Mexico meeting in Cancun, Mexico, Friday, March 31, 2006. (AP/Charles Dharapak) |
Cancun, Mexico Mexican President Vicente Fox said his government was preparing to extradite at least 24 drug traffickers to the United States, but he ruled out using police to stop migrants on Mexico's side of the border.
Speaking to reporters in Cancun, where he was meeting with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Fox said Thursday he couldn't release the names of the traffickers facing extradition, and warned they might react violently to the prospect of being sent abroad.
This will be punishment for them because we'll take them out of Mexico so they stop operating, Fox said.
He said the first dozen will be turned over to the United States in the coming weeks and at least another 12 will soon follow. Fox had earlier mentioned extraditing a smaller number of traffickers.
In November, Mexico's Supreme Court overturned a 4-year-old ban on the extradition of suspects facing life in prison, removing an obstacle that had prevented many of the country's most notorious criminals from facing U.S. justice. Mexico, however, can still deny extradition if the person faces the death penalty.
American investigators say allowing top drug suspects from Colombia to be extradited to the United States reshaped the anti-narcotics battle in that country and that extraditing Mexican suspects could have a similar effect here.
While Fox's statements on the extraditions were likely to please the United States, he flatly ruled out any possibility that Mexico would try to prevent its migrants from crossing the border illegally.
Mexico has long cited a freedom-of-movement clause in its Constitution as prohibiting any attempt to stop would-be Mexican migrants from massing at border towns.
We can't infringe upon the right of people to move freely within our territory, Fox said.
Fox said his government has strengthen enforcement on Mexico's southern border, where 240,000 Central American migrants heading to the United States were deported last year.
Border security is expected to be the focus of a meeting Friday between Fox, Bush and Harper, who wrap a two-day North American summit here.
Mexico's top priority with its northern neighbor is a migration accord that would address the status of the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexican workers living in the United States.
Fox said he remains optimistic that the U.S. Congress will approve a migration accord favorable to Mexico.
It would be a win-win situation, Fox said. If we can create an orderly migration flow, it would give both of our countries security and create economic and competitive advantages.
Cancun had braced for possible protests against Bush's visit. Dozens of police carrying tear-gas rifles manned roadblocks designed to keep protesters 10 miles away from the summit site.
But only a few protesters who said they supported immigration reform in the United States showed up.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza in neighboring Yucatan state, where the three leaders visited earlier in the day. The demonstrators who were kept far from the official visitors carried signs saying, Bush you're not welcome in Yucatan, murderer.
In Mexico City, a band of about 200 demonstrators protested in front of the U.S. embassy against Bush's visit on Thursday, blocking trafficking and burning an American flag. |
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