His voice cracking with emotion, President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the United States bore some blame for “an act of terror” by gangsters who doused a casino with gasoline and set a blaze that killed at least 52 people.
Followed by:
But in unprecedented, direct criticism of the United States, Calderon said lax U.S. gun laws and high demand for drugs stoked his nation’s violence. He appealed to U.S. citizens “to reflect on the tragedy that we are living through in Mexico.”
So someone kills a bunch of people using matches and gasoline, a weapon we regularly refer to as an easy way to kill a lot of people when our opponents insist guns must be controlled, because they can kill a lot of people easily… and the conclusion is our gun laws are to blame? This guy puts some of our worst city politicians to shame with deflecting blame.
And I’ve reflected, Mr. President, on the “tragedy we are living through in Mexico,” and have come to the conclusion the problem is that your country sucks. That’s not my country’s fault. Remember, we’re not building fences to keep our people in. There’s a reason for that.
He’s partially right, our government isn’t exactly helping, but it isn’t because we have too much freedom. Mexico also has a violence problem of its own obviously, which is independent of whatever we are or aren’t doing.
How much are the drug cartels paying Calderon to shift the blame for their behavior from them to the US?
I don’t agree with his statement on guns, but I do on drug demand. If we didn’t have such a high demand for illegal drugs in the USA, the cartels would not be anywhere near as profitable or popular.
I missed the part where he committed to building a fence or patrolling the border to keep the guns out, and the drugs and Mexicans in.
Same here on the drug demand. I have been seeing commercials for some show on History about drug running and the sheriff makes it seem like if we can stop the drugs, we are golden. Ummm… No.
Calderon has some valid points, but the wrong ones. We can’t deny that U.S. drug prohibition is a major cause of the violence both in Mexico, South America & our inner cities. The easy stacks of cash to be made from dealing attract the worst elements and give them the cash to arm themselves and to corrupt law enforcement on both sides of the border. We need to admit prohibition is as big a failure now as it was when Al Capone was living large on illegal hooch.
Where Calderon has it wrong is where the guns are coming from. Many are from the U.S., but only a small % are from gun shops & shows. The MILITARY weapons used by the cartels are bought or stolen primarily from the inept, corrupt militaries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Savador (three contries who’d do well to follow Costa Rica’s example of not having an army) and Mexico itself. The Zetas are mostly ex-special forces members with deep ties to the active duty military.
Calderon is also wrong–as are nearly 100% of Mexican politicians–in claiming the U.S. is at fault when it comes to smuggling INTO Mexico. To aid illegal immigration, the Mexican government barely monitors its northern border. It even publishes maps for Christ’s sake, showing migrants the easiest places to sneak into the USA. When you’re heading south, there is no border security at all–Mexico does nothing to secure its border with us. If there’s a real problem with civilian arms coming into Mexico (there is, but it’s a much smaller problem than they pretend), they could start by searching cars or even people who stream over the bridges south day in & day out. What people smuggle IN to Mexico ain’t our problem.
The last piece of the puzzle that Calderon misses is the same piece missed by mayors and city officials in Chicago, Baltimore and other violence-ridden hell holes in the US: gun prohibition empowers gangsters. If Mexicans were allowed to arm themselves, they wouldn’t have to kowtow to the gangsters their government has proven incapable of policing.
If he had balls, he would legalize the drugs in Mexico. Why is he fighting our misguided Prohibition war?
90% of gasoline in Mexico comes from US refineries.
I think he’s a knowing part of the Gunwalker antics, and here he’s playing his cards to the Media for leverage.
“Blame the Gringos” is always a safe political bet in Mexico. Sadly, own current government in the US has jumped on the bandwagon to help.