This week, WORLDMEETS.US is working on a series of articles from Mexico and Latin America about the battle over drugs now spilling over the Mexican border into the United States.
According to this first item by Pablo Hiriart of Mexico’s Excelsior newspaper, the governments of the United States and Mexico are painting themselves into a corner with mutual recriminations about the burgeoning drug-related war down south.
“Recent statements by senior officials on both sides of the border leave no room for doubt: relations between the United States and Mexico are deteriorating. Over there, the State Department, some of the press and even President Obama, have begun making a series of escalating statements against the image of Mexico. And here it’s the same thing. The Attorney General [Eduardo Medina Mora], the press and even President Calderon have launched attacks against the evil and ineffective gringos. … To the United States, Mexico is a country in total chaos without respect for life or law and where we gun down one another over the issue of drugs. And to Mexicans, our neighbors to the north are hypocrites who won’t admit to their own share of the blame for the violent situation being endured in various parts of our national territory.”
As to the consequences of the verbal escalation, Hiriart writes:
“If this isn’t put to a stop quickly and the belligerent mood redirected into active forms of collaboration, things will end badly and to the disadvantage of both countries. When the moment comes to consider major and historic agreements on cooperation and integration, as it must, it will likely be a time in which the climate of public opinion in both countries couldn’t be more adverse. … In Mexico, who will be brave enough to suggest, in this climate, an agreement with the United States to deepen economic integration? Whoever suggests such a thing will be considered a traitor or of bad birth, thanks to the official discourse against our northern neighbors.”
By Pablo Hiriart
Translated By Molly Smith
March 13, 2009
Mexico – Excelsior – Original Article (Spanish)
Recent statements by senior officials on both sides of the border leave no room for doubt: relations between the United States and Mexico are deteriorating. Over there, the State Department, some of the press and even President Obama have begun making a series of escalating statements against the image of Mexico. And here it’s the same thing. The Attorney General [Eduardo Medina Mora], the press and even President Calderon have launched attacks against the evil and ineffective gringos.
If this isn’t put to a stop quickly and the belligerent mood redirected into active forms of collaboration, things will end badly and to the disadvantage of both countries.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
