Clinton Seeks to Reassure Mexico on U.S. Help for Drug Fight

Jeff Bliss and Viola Gienger
Bloomberg
March 25, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will try to ease Mexican concerns about the U.S. commitment to free trade and the cross-border fight against drug cartels during a two-day trip to Mexico that begins today.

Ties have been strained by the escalating conflict among narcotics traffickers that has left 7,000 people dead in Mexico since the beginning of last year and spilled over to some U.S. cities. Adding to tensions is a trade dispute over U.S. restrictions on Mexican trucks.

President Barack Obama last night said his administration is beginning a “very significant” effort to keep Mexico’s drug violence from spreading across the border and to aid the Mexican government in combating drug cartels.

“We will do more” if additional actions are needed, he said at a White House news conference. He didn’t address a question about whether he would dispatch “national troops” to increase security along the border.

Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., said yesterday in Washington that the U.S. must understand its role in supporting the cartels.

“The violence in Mexico is not happening in a vacuum,” Sarukhán told a gathering organized by the Council of the Americas, a New York-based free-trade group. “It’s happening because we sit next to the biggest consumer market in the world.”

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