Friendly neighbor: President Obama speaks at a news conference in Mexico City Thursday. He promised to help Mexico fight drug cartels responsible for widespread violence in the country.
(Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
Obama talks guns, immigration in Mexico
He vows to support a regional treaty to curb gun trafficking as well as greater cooperation on clean energy.
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer/ April 16, 2009 edition
Mexico City
President Obama struck a realistic tone in his first-ever visit to Mexico, pledging cooperation on key issues such as drug violence and immigration, but warning that nothing he or his Mexican counterpart could do would solve the problems completely.
In what has been scaled back to a less-than-24-hour visit, Mr. Obama also announced a few initiatives. He said he would push the United States Senate to ratify a treaty aimed at regulating the trafficking of certain types of guns in the Americas – a measure that was signed by President Clinton in 1997 but never ratified. In addition, he said that the US and Mexico, in tandem with other countries in the hemisphere, will pursue a clean-energy partnership.
The president sought to stress that the two countries were not linked solely by the challenges they share. “Our relationship is not defined only by these problems,” he said in an afternoon press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderón. “It is also defined by our opportunities.”
During the press conference, Mr. Obama directly addressed controversial issues such as immigration and the violence sparked by drug wars here. In previsit interviews, Mr. Calderón told US media that he would ask for a reinstatement of the lapsed assault-weapons ban. Obama acknowledged that as a candidate he supported reinstating the ban that lapsed in 2004, but that it would be wiser turn to more realistic pursuits, like better enforcement of existing laws.
“I haven’t changed my opinion. [The ban] would make sense, I continue believing that,” he said. “[But] none of us is under the illusion that reinstating the ban would be easy.”
The goal, both Obama and Calderón emphasized, is not a utopian elimination of drugs and related violence, but a reduction to a more manageable level.
“Are we going to eliminate all drug flows? Are we going to eliminate all guns over the border? That’s not a not realistic objective,” Obama said. “What is a realistic objective is to reduce it so significantly – so drastically that it becomes once again a localized criminal problem as opposed to a major structural problem.”
Calderón seconded Obama’s more modest aims. A medium-term goal for Mexico is a full reform of its police, cutting corruption and boosting efficiency and capability, he said. “What we want is a technically and technologically advanced police force, and the help of the US will be fundamental in accomplishing that,” he added.
Yet he tweaked the US for its high level of drug use, which feeds Mexico’s drug-trafficking gangs. “Of course drug trafficking cannot be ended by decree,” he said. “As long as there is a high demand, there will be high supply.”
Calderón asserted that during his two years and four months in office, more than 16,000 assault weapons have been seized in Mexico – and that 90 percent of them have come from the US.
A report released Thursday by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) in Washington appeared to back such assertions. US court records from southwestern states show that illegal gun traffickers smuggling firearms to Mexico are seeking a variety of weapons from US gun shops, the report concluded. These include semiautomatic assault weapons, armor-piercing handguns, and .50 caliber antiarmor sniper rifles.
The VPC obtained records filed in 21 federal firearms-smuggling prosecutions in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas between February 2006 and February 2009.
On Immigration, Obama reiterated his determination to pass reform legislation this year. But he also said the US has “a legitimate concern” over the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrive from dozens of countries every year “without anyone knowing who they are.”
Part of his goal, he said, is to provide those people with a path to legal status: “They need to come out of the shadows.”
Calderón said that the only way to stop the migration “is to provide opportunities for our citizens” in Mexico. In the meantime, he added, the only option is to proceed with the kind of fair and just immigration reform Obama said he will seek this year.
Comments
2. Louweegie272 | 04.17.09
In a BBC interview, President Calderon blames “U.S. Graft” as a big part of the drug problem. Not one US news outlet
reported this, why not? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7971335.stm
3. tyler kent | 04.17.09
Obviously, Mexico’s gun control laws don’t work. And in the U.S., the prohibition on heroin and cocaine don’t work, either. Now, if the prohibition on heroin and cocaine isn’t working, why would anyone think that a prohibition on firearms will work any better? After all, Mexico has such a prohibtion, and it clearly isn’t working.
4. chris | 04.17.09
The wall we are constructing will help to stop the flow of immigrants, drugs, and weapons across the border. However, we have been fighting the war on drugs in America for a long time and we have only made progress in the area of drug rehabs and prevention. Compassion, counseling, and drug rehabilitaion centers will help win the war on drugs. The prohibition did not work and neither will the war on drugs.
5. Halibut | 04.17.09
When guns cross the border from Mexico to the U.S., U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expected to stop them from coming in. When Guns cross the border into Mexico, we’re being told that it’s U.S Customs and Border Protection’s responsibiltiy to keep them from going out. At what point does Mexico take some responsibility for guns moving across the border?
6. chris | 04.17.09
Saying Americans are anti-immigration is not realistic. The United States already has the most lieniant immigration policy in the world. We are letting millions of people in the country legally every year. Amnesty should not be given to illiegal immigrants nither should Id cards. We also need to change the law being born in this country should not allow you to be a United States citizen. The law is outdated.
7. chris | 04.17.09
Saying Americans are anti-immigration is not realistic. The United States already has the most lenient immigration policy in the world. We are letting millions of people in the country legally every year. Amnesty should not be given to illegal immigrants neither should Id cards. We also need to change the law being born in this country should not allow you to be a United States citizen. The law is outdated.
8. John Walters | 04.17.09
The CS monitor should do more fact checking, and not merely corroborate one biased source (Calderón) with another biased source (VPC).
From FOX news:
“There’s just one problem with the 90 percent “statistic” and it’s a big one:
It’s just not true.
In fact, it’s not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.
What’s true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency’s assistant director, “is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S.”
But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.”
9. Álvaro Ricárdez | 04.17.09
I think the basic problem of violence is unjust social conditions. First, internal conditions in both countries. Even if the US is the richest country in America, there are many problems which lead to drug consumption which is among the highest in the world. Moral values have down graded because most people want to get rich and to consume and nothing else. This situation brings problems mainly among young people leading to easy “solutions” based on drug trafficking to get fast easy money or drug consumption to forget about a life without purpose. In Mexico, a rich, unefficient and corrupt burocracy, lack of real democracy and one of the worst unbalances of wealth distribution has forced a lot of people to look for answers: migrating looking for jobs and better economic condictions, going into the drug business as growers, sellers or the growing bodyguard business. Many desperados find in crime a “solution” too. And this last “work” is in both sides of the problem. There is a well paid demand of bodyguards for rich people: drug traffikers, politicians, judges, lawyers, business people. Many state forces get training in the army or police corps and then switch to the bodyguard business or to crime. So, how to stop it? In Mexico, with a just distribution of wealth, even if it means a socialist goverment. In the US with a moral reawakening of the US people. Why being afraid of socialist solutions? Why do the US intervene in Mexican politics to assure a non socialist goverment is seated in Mexico? Do not the US realize that as long as unjust wealth distribution remains in Mexico, problems will just go up in dimension and intensity? We are neighbors, problems in Mexico will affect the US and US politics are as important to Mexico as to the US. As soon as we accept that our neighboring relation is there to stay, there is nothing to do. A wall will make Americans feel better, but our common problems will go growing until a day when violence will be the only solution left. History teaches us this. What happened to Adrian’s Wall in Britain? Or China’s? Or the Iron Curtain? Same destiny for the Tortilla Wall!
10. Bobby G | 04.17.09
Every thing seems to be USA’s fault But facts are facts 17% of the guns come from the USA not 90% like the liars are stating. We in the USA need to get these clowns out of office and fast.
11. Ron | 04.17.09
We should have the same immigration laws that mexico and use the same techniques they use on their Northern Borders
12. Terry | 04.17.09
Why do American newspapers, including the Monitor, let reporters and editors work on stories for which they are grotesquely unqualified? There is no such thing as “armor-piercing handguns” or “.50 caliber antiarmor sniper rifles”. Those phrases are of a kind with, say, “100 octane aviation automobiles” or “heroin syringes”.
Handguns are handguns and rifles are rifles. There IS such thing as “armor-piercing or “antiarmor” AMMUNITION and some of it can be fired from handguns and rifles, just as you can put 100 octane aviation fuel in some cars and heroin in some syringes. However, you cannot just go to your favorite retailer or web vendor to buy AP ammo. It’s legally available only to the military and some law enforcement agencies.
13. Ali | 04.17.09
I am at a loss to understand why illegal aliens and their supporters such as Mr. Calderon and Mr. Obama believe that “immigration reform”, i.e. amnesty, should be “just” or “fair” for people who have already shown that they believe in neither. What is more unjust than for an illegal alien to put his personal interests above the welfare of American society in general and the costs he places on it? What is more unfair than for illegal aliens to cut in line ahead of legal immigrants and to expect the U.S. taxpayer to pay for the births of their children and other social services? There is nothing fair or just about illegal immigration and consequently there is no reason to believe that a solution should be fair or just to illegal aliens.
14. Ramon | 04.21.09
I am a card carrying conceal carrier ! I carry a .40 caliber sig sauer and I also carry a Para .45 Warthwag . I believe that carrying a hand gun I can protect myself and those around me. I also believe that a college student has the right to carry on campus. The shooting in New York a few weeks ago could have been prohibited of there was an individual carrying a weapon and shot the criminal .
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1. Mike Wickerham | 04.17.09
Apparently the idea of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as enshrined in our Bill of Rights are not compatible with the current administrations view of how things should be.