"President Calderon rushed into [the drug war], and now we’re paying the consequences:”
source: http://on.cnn.com/cGBS22
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- ras_menelik
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(CNN) – The United States and Mexico should both legalize marijuana in an attempt to break the power of the Mexican drug cartels and end the spiraling violence south of the border, Mexico’s former Foreign Minister said Tuesday.
Jorge Castaneda, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, said, “It should be legalized in both countries”. He stated it was ridiculous for Mexico to try to stop marijuana from entering the U.S. when it’s legally sold for medical purposes in Los Angeles.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration says that 60 percent of the Mexican (drug) cartels’ profits come from marijuana. If we start with that, it’s a big chunk”, he added.
“We can’t do everything overnight.. and we can’t do it in Mexico if the U.S. doesn’t do it at the same time.”
Castaneda strongly criticized Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon for declaring war against the drug cartels, a war that has cost as many as 17,000 lives since he took office in December 2006.
He said 900 people were killed in the past month alone – a new monthly record. Sixteen students died in what’s thought to be a drug-related massacre in the border city of Juarez over the weekend.
“It’s hard for me quite honestly – and I think for many Mexicans – to accept that the more deaths we have, the more successful the strategy is”, he added.
“I think President Calderon rushed into this, and now we’re paying the consequences.”
http://on.cnn.com/cGBS22
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- groups:
- Community, Human Rights, H.E.M.P., Make Marijuana Matter, 7 more
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N_Dank
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free the weed and so many problems end
- 2 years ago
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N_Dank
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hunzedog
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our leaders are greedy arrogant assholes that need a good ass kicking...its coming you pot nazi pukes...........its COMING SOON ...................
- 2 years ago
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hunzedog
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hunzedog
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i dont want to give the cartels money and power. i just want to grow my own. is that a crime ? why yes , yes it is..............a felony crime
- 2 years ago
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hunzedog
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hunzedog
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when will the useless suffering end ?
- 2 years ago
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hunzedog
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ras_menelik
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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Ciudad Juarez police baffled by shooting of teens
The attack on a party attended by mostly high school and college students has 'no apparent motive,' the mayor says. The death toll rises to 16. - 2 years ago
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ras_menelik
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ras_menelik
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ras_menelik:
The majority of the dead were under 20, and most were high school or college students.
Ciudad Juarez has witnessed spectacular violence for the last two years because of a ferocious war between a pair of drug trafficking groups that has killed more than 3,700 people. Many of the killings have been gangland-style, with bodies lined up in rows or left headless in public places, and few of the cases have been solved.
Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Monday that authorities had found no evidence to suggest that any of the young victims were connected in some way to criminal activity. Authorities have offered a reward of 1 million pesos, about $78,000, for information leading to the capture of the killers.
"The violence has always been between the criminal groups, [but] in this case in particular -- good kids, students, athletes -- there is no apparent motive for these deeds, and that is what concerns Juarez residents most today," Reyes said during a radio interview. "This case is very difficult for us."
The father of one victim wept during a radio interview as he called upon his government to stop the killing that has shown no signs of abating in Juarez.
"It's not fair, President Calderon. Hear these cries. They're not from families that have problems with drugs, it's from a father whose heart has been torn out, whose son has been taken away this way," said Adrian Cadena, whose son Rodrigo was killed.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shootings2-2010feb02,0... - 2 years ago
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ras_menelik
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ras_menelik
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Mexico’s Consul General in New York, Ruben Beltran, who also served in the U.S. border states of California and Arizona, strongly disagreed with Castaneda’s assessment.
“Are we going to raise the white flag? Are we going to surrender? Are we going to surrender the ability of the government to look for the rule of law and secure the rule of law?” he said.
“I don’t think there’s an alternative. The monopoly of force – use of force – pertains to the state, and the state is the one who should use the force to secure the stability of the country.”
President Calderon has sent 45,000 troops to help overstretched police departments fight the drug cartels.
Beltran said, “What we’re witnessing right now is maybe the peak of that violence. Let me assure you that the Mexican government is not going to relinquish its duty to confront organized crime, and that’s what’s happening right now.”
Castaneda though said Mexico was paying an enormously high price because of the aggressive approach of the Calderon government. He said the administration should be seeking to contain drug cartels, not destroy them.
“It’s not different from what 100,000 American troops are doing in Afghanistan with heroin. Not one of those troops is combating the heroin traffic from Afghanistan. They’re containing it because they have other priorities”, Castaneda stated.
Beltran said it’s going to take more than one administration in Mexico City to defeat the drug cartels. He also called on the U.S. to provide more help. “In order for Mexico to be successful in this war, we need increased cooperation with the United States to stem the flow of cash, weapons, and ammo from the United States to Mexico.”
Castaneda though pointed out that on a recent trip across the border from San Diego to Tijuana there was not the slightest inspection of any car crossing from north to south, on either the U.S. or Mexican side of the border.
“They can’t do it. It’s too expensive. The local communities don’t want it. It backs up queues tens of miles north, the same way as in the south. They’re not going to do it.”
Castaneda’s remarks appear flatly to contradict a promise by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in March last year when she said, “We’re sending technology to the border that will allow us to scan or do non-invasive X-rays to see whether cars are carrying assault weapons, other kinds of weapons, that are flowing into Mexico to fuel these drug cartels.”
- 2 years ago
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ras_menelik
