cannabisnews.com: Drug Trade Threatens Mexico's Democracy!





Drug Trade Threatens Mexico's Democracy!
Posted by FoM on June 01, 1999 at 06:32:16 PT
McCaffrey says 
Source: Nando Times
MEXICO CITY Mexico's democracy faces an enormous threat from corruption caused by the illegal drugs trade, U.S. anti-drug chief Gen. Barry McCaffrey said in a published report on Monday. 
"Enormous, enormous. (The threat is) more serious than the Germans in World War II," McCaffrey told Reforma daily in an interview published in Spanish. But he said Mexico could turn things around. "If you have honest elections, if people can kick out corrupt (officials) from their posts, why wouldn't we expect Mexico to build a system that will do away with drug cartels?" McCaffrey also stressed the importance of respecting national sovereignty in cross-border cooperation in fighting the drug trade, in what has often been a tense relationship between the Mexican and U.S. governments. "You can't violate Mexican sovereignty more than Canadian or French sovereignty," he said. Mexican authorities bristled last year when U.S. agents conducted the "Casablanca" sting operation against Mexican banks accused of laundering drug money without informing their Mexican counterparts. Like other Latin American countries, Mexico has also resented the White House's annual certification every March of its anti-drug efforts, saying the process is one-sided. Mexico has also said the existence of the world's biggest drug market in the United States thwarts its efforts to combat the flow of Colombian cocaine across its porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) northern border. Some U.S. politicians counter that there is too much corruption among many senior Mexican officials. Mexico's drug-fighting credentials were tarnished in 1997 when the head of its anti-drug policy, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was arrested on charges of having links with a powerful narcotics gang. McCaffrey himself endorsed Gutierrez's appointment and said he did so based on information supplied by U.S. and Mexican security forces. "The Mexican president himself decided that this guy was a very aggressive, successful and brave soldier. And our intelligence services said that," McCaffrey said in the interview with Reforma. "They were mistaken. And so what? We will make mistakes again. But that won't stop me working with Mexico," he added. 
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Comment #1 posted by Rick Lorenz on June 01, 1999 at 20:36:44 PT:
Threat to Democracy
The General doesn't realize that America's war on drugs is a threat to democracy...or more accurately, to the Constitution. If you look at American TV or listen to American radio they always seem to censor drug references. Once I watched the Woodstock documentary on American TV, either WTBS or maybe A&E. Along with the nudity, they took out all the footage of people smoking dope!This is really scary, like burning books or something. And people wonder why militias are popular.It means that the media has given up Freedom of Expression as and Freedom of the Press as guaranteed by the Constitution.Makes me glad I live in Canada. We're losing our right to bear arms every day, but ladies are gaining the right to bare breasts, and I can say whatever the hell I want. For example, City TV's broadcast tonight. The oppressed Americans would be forced to view a censored version: it would be 5 seconds long, showing only the PC guy saying that it leads to hard drug use. 
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