Pubdate: Fri, 13 Mar 2009
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2009
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.ft.com/

Author: Daniel Dombey

OBAMA EYES TROOPS FOR MEXICO DRUG WAR

Barack Obama is considering sending National Guard troops to the
border with Mexico as US concerns mount about its neighbour's
increasingly violent struggle with Mexican drug cartels on the frontier.

Amid debate in Washington over the crisis, the president highlighted
the administration's fears about the raging violence, focused on
towns such as Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Mr Obama last week discussed the military implications of the
fighting with Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments
would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense,"
Mr Obama said this week.

But he added: "I'm not interested in militarising the border."

The president's comments follow requests from some border states for
the deployment of troops.

Almost 6,000 people in Mexico died in drug-related violence last
year, with deaths in Juarez representing a quarter of the total. The
rate of killings has increased during 2009.

The state department and a series of private organisations have
recently issued advice about travel to Mexico and US politicians have
stepped up calls for a more forceful response from the administration.

US Joint Forces Command late last year issued a report that grouped
Mexico with Pakistan as a state that could undergo a "rapid and
sudden collapse". It said: "The government, its politicians, police
and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and
pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels ... Any descent by Mexico
into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious
implications for homeland security alone."

Joe Biden, the US vice-president, this week highlighted the threat
posed by drug traffickers in the south-west border region when he
announced Gil Kerlikowske as the new US drug tsar. But an increasing
number of legislators say the US administration needs to do more.

"We are not taking seriously the so-called spillover violence effect
from the drug cartels in Mexico," Hal Rogers, a Republican
Congressman, said. He compared US policy unfavourably with Mexico's
decision to send its army to the border to fight the drug gangs.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's
ambassador to Washington, argued that the US also bore responsibility
for the increase in violence.

"There is no spillover into the US; that's a misunderstanding," he said.

"They are not fighting in Tucson [Arizona] because they are fighting
in Tijuana ... The drug syndicates' activities have been interrupted,
including distribution in the US [because] we have a Mexican
president who has decided to use the strength of the state to shut
down the syndicates and roll them back."

Arguing that the violence was largely spurred by fighting between
"cornered" drugs groups, Mr Sarukhan said the assault weapons used
and the money to finance them came from the US.

Last month, 54 US Congressmen wrote to Mr Obama backing Mexican calls
to enforce a ban on the US importation of assault weapons, which are
often shipped to Mexico.

Janet Napolitano, US homeland security secretary, says the
administration is working on increasing its efforts to intercept the
cash and guns flowing south.

US officials say intelligence sharing and scanners for Mexican border
posts are at the heart of the approach.

However, Congress this week scaled down the administration's request
for $450m (UKP350m, UKP 325m) for drug co-operation with Mexico,
authorising $300m instead.
_____________________________________________________________

Theharderstuff mailing list
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://mail.psychedelic-library.org/mailman/listinfo/theharderstuff