Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs rejects the idea that Mexico is a “failed State”

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

El Universal (Mexico City) 2/16/09

 

The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, rejects the idea that Mexico is a “failed State” due to the violence generated by organized crime, since the violence concentrates in mainly three states: Baja California, Chihuahua and Sinaloa.  In a press conference with the Minister of Foreign Relations of Ireland, Michael Martin, she maintains that the perception of major violence in the country is the result of a strategy of organized crime groups.  “The level of violence that we are witnessing for the first time in Mexico, and that we deeply regret, has to do precisely with the strategy of those organized crime groups to intimidate the public, to give the impression that there is a major problem,” she affirmed.  She added that the violence should be viewed as the result of the “decided action of the Mexican State to combat them.”

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Reinforcing the above views, President Felipe Calderón assured visiting US Representatives from the subcommittee on foreign operations that the criminal groups are desperate and trying to fight the government actions against them.

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El Financiero (Mexico City) 2/16/09

 

Regarding the seizure of the seven tons of cocaine reported Monday, a Commander of the Mexican Navy said the fishing boat was located some 200 nautical miles from Puerto Chiapas [formerly Puerto Madero, near the Guatemalan border] and later sank due to “severe damage to the hull.”  Neither the origin nor the destination of the shipment has yet been determined, as that type of investigation is not a function of the Navy.  The arrested crew members are from Sinaloa, as was the sunken fishing vessel.

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Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 2/16/09

 

Mexican federal agents arrested 79 Guatemalan illegal immigrants in the state of Veracruz today.  The Guatemalans were hidden in a truck trailer according to official sources.  Authorities estimate that some 400,000 Central Americans attempt passing through the area each year en route to the US.

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