US 'must share drug burden'
2010-03-17 17:08
Ciudad Juarez - President Felipe Calderon called on Tuesday for shared US responsibility in the fight against Mexico's drug gangs, after US consulate-linked killings in Ciudad Juarez.
Calderon was met with protests by hundreds of residents frustrated by almost daily attacks, extortion and kidnappings that plague Ciudad Juarez despite the deployment of around 6 000 troops in the violent city of some 1.3 million.
Some protesters threw stones at police stationed around the hotel where Calderon was holding meetings while others managed to jump over barriers police had set up to limit access to the building. At least eight protesters were detained.
US role stressed
"It's indispensable that the fight against organised crime is fully assumed as a shared responsibility between the United States and Mexico... with each on its territory and in its field of competence," Calderon said on a visit to the border city across from El Paso, Texas.
Calderon's third visit this year to Mexico's crime capital followed the high-profile murders of an American employee of the US consulate who was three months pregnant, her husband and the husband of a Mexican consular employee in two separate weekend attacks.
Accompanied by US Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, the Mexican leader stressed the key role of US drug consumption and weapons trafficking in funding the Mexican gangs.
US President Barack Obama's administration has acknowledged the US role in Mexico's violence and US officials have targeted Mexican drug gangs in the United States in recent years.
Mexican authorities have blamed the latest murders on "the Aztecas", hitmen linked to the powerful Juarez drug cartel, as US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents joined investigations there.
Cross-border partnership
Pascual dismissed reports that US forces would carry out operations inside Mexico, saying they had been sent to assist their Mexican counterparts.
"No US law enforcement officers will conduct operations in Mexico," he said.
"US agencies are in Mexico to support the Mexican authorities who have jurisdiction over the investigation."
The United States already shares technical expertise and has provided military equipment to Mexico under the $1.3bn Merida Initiative to fight organised crime.
Ciudad Juarez is at the heart of Calderon's controversial clampdown on organised crime, which has seen some 50 000 troops deployed nationwide.
Thousands dead
More than 15 000 people have died in the surge of drug-related violence since Calderon took office at the end of 2006, including more than 2 600 last year alone in Ciudad Juarez.
Investigators said it remained unclear why the US consulate-linked victims were singled out by hit teams who ambushed the two family groups just minutes apart on Saturday after they left a birthday party.
The victims were identified as Lesley Enriquez, an American working at the consulate, her American husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto Salcido, the Mexican husband of another consular employee.
Police on Monday located a charred van they believed was used by the killers.
A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said gunmen had chased Enriquez and her husband by car for over a kilometre before killing them.
City in spotlight
The broad daylight attacks put Ciudad Juarez under a heightened glare of attention only two months after the gruesome massacre of 15 youths at a party there on January 31.
After those killings, Calderon launched an ambitious social project in a bid to restore some normalcy to the city from which hundreds have fled in recent months.
Last weekend, suspected drug attacks claimed more than 100 lives across Mexico. Among the hardest hit areas was the western Guerrero state, home to the legendary resort of Acapulco, and a key transit point for drug trafficking.
Canada on Tuesday followed the US State Department by updating warnings against travel to northern Mexico.