MEXICO CITY – US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has promised to help Mexico broaden a drug war that has failed to curb the increasingly deadly power of traffickers along the US-Mexican border.
Ms Clinton, who is leading a top-level US delegation in Mexico City for a day of talks, said it was necessary to tackle the deeper social issues that fuel the narcotics trade as both nations battle to outmanoeuvre powerful smuggling cartels.
“This new agenda expands our focus beyond disrupting drug trafficking organisations – which will remain a core element of our co-operation – and encompasses challenges such as strengthening institutions, creating a 21st-century border and building strong, resilient communities,” Ms Clinton said.
She was joined by secretary of defence Bob Gates, secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano, military joint chiefs of staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and other high-level US officials, underscoring Washington’s concern over the raging drug violence south of its border.
“You rarely see this kind of meeting with this kind of array of cabinet officials on both sides, so I think it indicates this is the real deal,” Ms Napolitano told reporters aboard Ms Clinton’s aircraft before arriving in Mexico City.
The visit follows the fatal shooting of two US citizens in the violence-plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, an attack that raised the thorny question of what Washington could do to bolster security without being seen as interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.
The US is deeply involved in Mexico’s struggle with drug traffickers and has pledged some $1.4 billion over three years in a thus- far unsuccessful effort to crush cartels who ship $40 billion worth of illegal drugs north each year.
A poll in Mexican newspaper Milenioyesterday showed that 59 per cent of respondents think cartels are winning the drug war. – (Reuters)