MEXICO CITY -- Headless bodies in Tijuana, kidnapped children in Phoenix and shootouts on the streets of Vancouver: These are the unwanted byproducts of progress in the Mexican drug war. While the headline-grabbing chaos creates the appearance of a drug trade escalating out of control, evidence suggests Mexico's cartels are increasingly desperate due to a cross-border crackdown and a shift in the cocaine market from the U.S. to Europe. Those pressures are forcing Mexico's criminal networks, once accustomed to shipping drugs quietly and with impunity, to wage ever more violent battles over scraps and diversify into other criminal enterprises, including extortion and kidnapping for ransom on both sides of the U.S. border. [continues 785 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Headless bodies in Tijuana, kidnapped children in Phoenix and shootouts on the streets of Vancouver: These are the unwanted byproducts of progress in the Mexican drug war. While the headline-grabbing chaos creates the appearance of a drug trade escalating out of control, evidence suggests Mexico's cartels are increasingly desperate due to a cross-border crackdown and a shift in the cocaine market from the U.S. to Europe. Those pressures are forcing Mexico's criminal networks, once accustomed to shipping drugs quietly and with impunity, to wage ever more violent battles over scraps and diversify into other criminal enterprises, including extortion and kidnapping for ransom on both sides of the U.S. border. [continues 1059 words]
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president says he hopes to quell his country's rampant drug violence by the end of his term in 2012, and disputes U.S. fears that his government is losing control of its territory. In interviews with The Associated Press on Thursday, President Felipe Calderon and his top prosecutor said the violence that killed 6,290 people last year - and more than 1,000 in the first eight weeks of 2009 - is a sign that the cartels are under pressure from military and police operations nationwide, as well as turf wars among themselves. [continues 663 words]
MEXICO CITY - Alleged drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix was extradited to the United States on Saturday to face drug charges, becoming the first major Mexican drug lord suspect to be sent north for trial. Mexico's extradition of the man who is suspected of having once run the Arellano Felix drug clan was a victory for U.S. officials, who have been pushing Mexico to send them more drug lords. Arellano Felix was loaded into a helicopter in Matamoros, then flown across the border and handed over to Texas officials in Brownsville after serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico. He will be taken to California to face trial on charges stemming from a 1980 case in which he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover police officer in the United States. [continues 247 words]
Far-Reaching Effort To Target Supply, Demand MEXICO CITY - President Vicente Fox pledged Monday to launch an all-out war on the drug trade, saying his administration would go beyond nabbing drug lords and take on drug consumption and production in Mexico. Mexico has long been a haven for drug smugglers moving their goods into the United States. But since Fox took office two years ago, his administration has arrested several high-profile cartel leaders -- including one of the country's most-wanted criminals, Benjamin Arellano Felix. [continues 497 words]
MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox pledged Monday to launch an all-out war on the drug trade, saying his administration would go beyond nabbing drug lords and take on drug consumption and production in Mexico. Mexico has long been a haven for drug smugglers moving their goods into the United States. But since Fox took office two years ago, his administration has arrested several high-profile cartel leaders--including one of the country's most-wanted criminals, Benjamin Arellano Felix. The president said Monday that officials must do more to halt the growing problem of drug abuse and cultivation in Mexico. [continues 479 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Colombia's front-running presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe promised Monday to fight drug smuggling and defeat rebel groups while respecting human rights in his Andean nation. His comments came after a meeting Monday with Mexican President Vicente Fox, part of a trip that includes stops in Madrid, Spain, and Washington. Recent polls have predicted that Uribe will easily win Colombia's presidential election on May 26. "A government that I lead will seek to defeat violent groups and simultaneously recover human rights," he told reporters during a news conference after his meeting with Fox. [continues 337 words]
MEXICO CITY -- After toppling more than 70 years of authoritarian, one-party rule in Mexico, it seemed Vicente Fox would be welcomed with open arms north of the border. Yet Fox, who becomes president today, is pushing for more than just change in Mexico. Some of his proposals -- that the United States do more to fight drug trafficking, that Mexican workers eventually be able to move freely across the border -- have put Washington on the defensive. The former Coca-Cola executive, whose inauguration marks the first handover of power to another party in Mexico's history, hasn't been shy since his July 2 victory shocked and excited the world. He immediately began preaching his vision of a modern, efficient Mexico, traveling around the world to seek international support. [continues 297 words]
MEXICO CITY -- After toppling more than 70 years of authoritarian, one-party rule in Mexico, it seemed Vicente Fox would be welcomed with open arms north of the border. Yet Fox, who becomes president today, is pushing for more than just change in Mexico. Some of his proposals -- that the United States do more to fight drug trafficking, that Mexican workers eventually be able to move freely across the border -- have put some in Washington on the defensive. Fox, the former Coca-Cola executive whose inauguration marks the first hand-over of power to another party in Mexico's modern history, hasn't been shy since his July 2 victory shocked and excited the world. He immediately began preaching his vision of a modern, efficient Mexico, traveling around the world to seek international support. [continues 823 words]
