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 Editorials | Issues | March 2008 
Mexican Attorney General: US, Mexico Need Comprehensive Strategy
 Brendan McKenna - The Dallas Morning News
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| | Eduardo Medina Mora | | |
Washington — The United States and Mexico need to hammer out a sweeping strategic vision for the future of the two countries, Mexico's attorney general told officials Wednesday.
“Security, drug trafficking, immigration, trade and economic intervention are components of that comprehensive vision,” said Eduardo Medina Mora. “We cannot organize just one aspect of that.”
Mr. Mora, speaking at the U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues conference at a gathering in the Library of Congress, emphasized the links and connections between many of the issues facing both countries.
“The approach on the border has to be a comprehensive one,” he said. “You cannot build trade without security and you cannot build security without [controlling] the flow of goods, the flow of people in a safe, secure and legal way.”
He also emphasized Mexico's successes in targeting drug cartels – noting the destruction of airstrips in remote areas and the seizure of more than 200 aircraft used in trafficking – while at the same time reminding American officials that they too have a role to play.
“We need a substantial commitment, a really effective commitment on stopping weapons smuggling, the flow of hard cash, on top of whatever generates income for organized crime,” Mr. Mora said while also urging U.S. officials to remind Americans that half of the money that supports the cartels comes from marijuana sales.
“There is blood behind” every use of a drug, he said, “let it be marijuana, meth or cocaine or whatever. * Demand has to be reduced.”
Several members of Congress, including Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, and Michael McCaul, R-Austin, speaking at a subsequent panel, praised Mexican President Felipe Calderón's commitment to tackling the drug cartels in Mexico. and They also said they would work to steer get through Congress President Bush's $550 million, multi-year proposal, the Merida Initiative, to help Mexican authorities combat drug smugglers, improve communications and intelligence-sharing across the border, and reform the Mexican judicial system.
bmckenna(at)dallasnews.com |
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