# In Mexico, Obama to offer solidarity in drug war



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer - 51 mins ago
WASHINGTON - Confronting a security threat on America's doorstep, President Barack Obama is venturing into the heart of Mexico. His swift diplomatic mission is meant to show solidarity with a neighbor - and to prove that the U.S. is serious about halting the deadly flow of drugs and weapons.
During his stop in Mexico City on Thursday, Obama will emphasize cross-border cooperation and probably put a focus on clean energy, but the economic crisis and the bloody drug trade have set the tone.
Among the other touchy points are disagreement over a lapsed U.S. assault weapons ban, a standoff over cross-border trucking and immigration.
The escalating drug war in Mexico is spilling into the United States and onto Obama's lap as a foreign crisis much closer than North Korea or Afghanistan. Mexico is the main hub for cocaine and other drugs entering the U.S.; the United States is the primary source of guns used in Mexico's drug-related killings.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon's aggressive stand against drug cartels has won him the aid of the United States and the prominent political backing of Obama - never as evident as on Thursday, when the popular U.S. president is sure to stand with Calderon on his own turf and note his courage.
In an interview Wednesday with CNN en Espanol, Obama, indeed, contended that Calderon is doing "an outstanding and heroic job in dealing with what is a big problem right now along the borders with the drug cartels."
As for the U.S. role, Obama said, "We are going to be dealing not only with drug interdiction coming north, but also working on helping to curb the flow of cash and guns going south."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, meantime, said that consultations with Mexico on the drug problem are "not about pointing fingers, it's about solving a problem. What can we do to prevent the flow of guns and cash south that fuel these cartels."
Obama's overnight visit, said senior foreign policy aide Denis McDonough, "is meant to send a signal of respect."
Mexico is the only place Obama is visiting on his way to the two-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of Western Hemisphere nations.
"It will do a great deal in terms of symbolism to raise the profile of the relationship in both cases," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug-related violence since Calderon's stepped-up effort against the cartels began in 2006. The State Department says contract killings and kidnappings on U.S. soil, carried out by Mexican drug cartels, are on the rise too.
A U.S. military report just five months ago raised the specter of Mexico collapsing into a failed state with its government under siege by gangs and drug cartels. It named only one other country in such a worst-case scenario: Pakistan. The assertion incensed Mexican officials; Obama's team disavowed it.
Indeed, the Obama administration has gone the other direction, showering attention on Mexico.
In words that resounded loudly in both countries, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Mexico City that the U.S. shared responsibility for the drug war. She said America's "insatiable demand" for illegal drugs fueled the trade and that the U.S. had an "inability" to stop weapons from being smuggled south.
Obama has dispatched hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, to the Southwest to help Mexico fight drug cartels. He sent Congress a war-spending request that made room for $350 million for security along the U.S.-Mexico border. He added three Mexican organizations to a list of suspected international drug kingpins. He dispatched three Cabinet secretaries to Mexico. And he just named a "border czar."
"This is something that we take very seriously, and we're going to continue to work on diligently," Obama said of the drug violence at a news conference last month. The Justice Department says such Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.

The White House is vowing more enforcement of gun laws. But it is not pursuing a promise Obama made as a candidate: a ban on assault-style weapons. 
That ban on military-style guns became law during the Clinton administration in 1994 but expired under the Bush administration in 2004. When Attorney General Eric Holder raised the idea of reinstituting the ban this year, opposition from Democrats and Republicans emerged quickly. 
Reopening the debate on gun rights is apparently a fight the White House does not want to take on right now. 
"I think that there are other priorities that the president has," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week. 
Mexican leaders, though, say the ban saved lives. "I think it was very good legislation," Calderon told ABC News the day before Obama's arrival. 
The swooning economy, blamed largely on failures inside the United States, has taken a huge toll on Mexico. About 80 percent of Mexico's exports - now in decline - go to the United States. 
Obama and Calderon are likely to tout the value of that trade, but a spat between their countries remains unresolved. Mexico has raised tariffs on nearly 90 American products, a retaliation for a U.S. decision to cancel access to Mexican truckers on U.S. highways despite the terms of a free trade agreement. On immigration, Obama is expected to make clear he is committed to reforms. The effort is likely to start this year but won't move to the top of his agenda.

In Mexico, Obama to offer solidarity in drug war


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## CJIS (Mar 12, 2005)

*Mexico: US ban on assault weapons would curtail flow of weapons ...*

*Mexico: US ban on assault weapons would curtail flow of weapons ... *

CNN International - ‎52 minutes ago‎
By Kristi Keck (CNN) -- President Obama visits Mexico with many issues on the table, but reinstating the ban on assault weapons in the US isn't likely to be one on which the two countries can reach agreement.
Fear and Greed Have Sales of Guns and Ammo Shooting Up Wall Street Journal

First 100 days: Guns, guns, guns msnbc.com

I smell BS


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

I smell fear...Run Away, Run Away! Filthy Reich-Wingers are demonstrating! Oh Noes!


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## Mikey682 (May 2, 2002)

I stop bad people from entering my house by closing the door. Cut SSDI nationwide for 2 months, and use those millions of dollars saved to solidify the border.


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## HousingCop (May 14, 2004)

Mikey682 said:


> I stop bad people from entering my house by closing the door. Cut SSDI nationwide for 2 months, and use those millions of dollars saved to solidify the border.


*Stop SSDI for 2 months and watch the crime rate SKYROCKET!! Think you're busy now? Wait till the layabouts with their "nervous conditions" don't get their monthly free money kiss-in-the-mail. Every Nana coming out of Star Market will be fair game for the predators. *

*I am pretty sure that these AK's & grenades being used aren't manufactured here or sold in the US to the Mexican drug cartels. Maybe the Mexicans had better solidify their own pourous borders so these type of arms don't make it ashore there before they tell us to change OUR laws. Maybe they should get their own house in order before demading things which will prohibit lawful gun owners from obtaining weapons for our own self defense under OUR Constitution. *


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## BB-59 (Oct 19, 2005)

Well, the begining of the end of our freedom is begining, and the excuse is Mexico! Santa Anna must be laughing from the grave.

Ever read your history on how he dealt with defensless civilians?

Our founding fathers must have their heads down and be ashamed of what we are letting be done with the gratest experiment in freedom the world had ever seen.


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## Hawk19 (Jan 9, 2009)

HousingCop said:


> *Stop SSDI for 2 months and watch the crime rate SKYROCKET!! Think you're busy now? Wait till the layabouts with their "nervous conditions" don't get their monthly free money kiss-in-the-mail. Every Nana coming out of Star Market will be fair game for the predators. *


Yep, and you can bet the SSDI cut would happen right after a massive wave of police layoffs, too.


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## Killjoy (Jun 23, 2003)

> I am pretty sure that these AK's & grenades being used aren't manufactured here or sold in the US to the Mexican drug cartels. Maybe the Mexicans had better solidify their own pourous borders so these type of arms don't make it ashore there before they tell us to change OUR laws.


I know; its not like we a huge surplus of full-automatic weapons floating around. Why would criminals want to come to the US to buy overpriced semi-auto rifles when they can buy AK's from south of their own border for pennies on the dollar? How many of these so-called US automatic weapons were acquired by criminals from the Mexican military?


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## SgtAndySipowicz (Mar 17, 2008)

*Re: anti-aircraft machine gun*

*Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Found in Mexico, More Horrifying Stories*

April 19th, 2009 The _Los Angeles Times_ has a great piece exposing the sheer brutality of the war raging in Mexico. Victims of the drug cartels are being electrocuted, and in one instance, a dozen soldiers were found decapitated with a sign stating, "For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10." The report says that 10,560 people have been killed since 2006. And the drug cartels' infrastructure inside the U.S. is extensive as well.
_"And now the cartels have brought the fight to us: In 230 U.S. cities, the Mexican organizations maintain distribution hubs or supply drugs to local distributors, according to the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center._
_Places like Miami and other longtime transportation points along the California, Arizona and Texas borders. But also Twin Falls, Idaho. Billings, Mont. Wichita, Kan. Phoenix. St. Louis. Milwaukee."_
The armaments being used by the cartels is becoming more and more frightening. Mexican police seized an anti-aircraft machine gun with a firing rate of 800 shots per minute and a range of 1500 meters. A grenade launcher, as well as other guns and ammunition, were also taken.

Posted by Ryan Mauro at 11:22 am 2009 "www.worldthreats.com"


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## justanotherparatrooper (Aug 27, 2006)

My local gun store is running a special on antiaircraft machine guns and grenades. this week its BOGO.


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## BB-59 (Oct 19, 2005)

This is exactly why we need the assault weapons ban back in place.

When anyone can go to the local *******, anti goverment, anti Obama, and racist gun show or gun dealer, and sell to our returning veterans and tax paying law abiding citizens who have been branded likely terrorists by the head of homeland security weapons like grenades, AA guns, and fully automatic weapons of mass destruction.

Then, when the outlaws and terrorists see that we are disarmed and mean them no harm, they will naturally stop any evil intentions against us and go home and report this and the world will be a happy place.

Hey just ask Professor William Ayres his take on the above, I am sure he will agree, after spitting and stepping on the American flag of course.


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## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

Just sit and wait. Katrina was even better. People have to realize that the government is not set-up to help people who can help themselves.

To get my scary hat on, I am worried about Mexico and this shit spilling over more then it all ready has. 

Unless Obama gives everyone a gun (unlikely) one needs to generally learn to defends oneself in a legally responsible way.

It is good to talk to the Mexican Officials about what to do. However, the Mexican Officials have lost control of the problem. Now is the time more then ever for REAL border security augmented by the Army National Guard equipped with appropriate combat weapons besides M-9 Pistols.

Doubtful that this will happen considering Bush, did something that was better then nothing. Obama is going to do even less. I don't care if an enemy of the U.S. is tortured to save 1,000s of American lives. Obama makes it sound like the .gov is pulling people off of the street for fun. 

Like Jimmy Carter, Obama will hopefully go away. However, Jimmy Carter's time was totally different from now. The Terrorists were just starting out and the Soviet Union helped to keep some order and slack in a lot of regions. 

Just live your life happily and without worry, but prepare for the best and the worse.


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