| | |  Americas & Beyond | December 2008 
Mexico 'Completely Committed' in Fight Against Cartels: DEA
 Agence France-Presse
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Quantico, Virginia – The United States has complete confidence in Mexico's ability to counter its drug cartels despite recent corruption scandals and a skyrocketing murder rate, DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said Friday.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora are "completely committed to breaking the backs of these cartels and we are continuing to do it together," Leonhart told AFP at the inauguration of a Drug Enforcement Administration training center in Quantico, Virginia.
Gangland-style attacks attributed to warring drug gangs have left more than 4,500 people dead across Mexico in 2008, despite a vast federal crackdown including the deployment of 36,000 soldiers, launched almost two years ago.
Leonhart emphasized the United States and Mexico will remain "true partners" and that the US is ready to provide "any assistance" needed in the effort.
Over the past day violence in two northern Mexican states left 14 people dead, including 10 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
The city, across the border from the US city of El Paso, Texas, has Mexico's highest murder rate this year, with more than 1,900 killed since January.
At least half a dozen high-level Mexican officials in the federal prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Public Security have been arrested and are under investigation for alleged involvement with the cartels.
"We are sure they are dealing with the corruption, we back them and we are here available for any assistance," said Leonhart.
The 16.4-million-dollar Quantico training center next to the FBI academy outside Washington is geared towards training foreign anti-drug operatives to detect and dismantle drug labs.
Since 1987, some 19,000 agents have been through the DEA's doors for training.
Leonhart said she was proud of the Mexican officers who received training from the DEA, adding that since Mexico started sending agents to the center in 2006, they have been doing "a phenomenal job." |
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