cannabisnews.com: Barry McCaffrey Concludes Visit to Mexico 





Barry McCaffrey Concludes Visit to Mexico 
Posted by FoM on February 14, 2000 at 16:25:59 PT
U.S.Newswire 
Source: Boston Globe
Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, concluded on Feb. 10, a three-day official working visit to Mexico. Responding to an invitation by Attorney General Jorge Madrazo, the main purpose of his visit was to meet with high level officials and to discuss growing Mexican counter narcotics cooperation programs with the United States. 
''The drug issue continues to be a major area of partnership between these two great nations,'' McCaffrey said. In Mexico City, General McCaffrey met at the Secretariat of Foreign Relations with Secretary Rosario Green and Under Secretary for North America and Europe, Juan Rebolledo. He also held working meetings with Defense Secretary Enrique Cervantes, and Health Secretary, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Fernandez. At El Colegio de Mexico, Director McCaffrey addressed a university audience on a review of trends in the narcotics trade. ''Mexican and U.S. drug traffickers are facing increasing competition from their counterparts in Caribbean and Central American nations,'' he stressed. In his remarks he also underscored that more than a war on drugs, he now prefers to think of the drug problem as ''a cancer affecting social life.'' During his visit, General McCaffrey along with Attorney General Jorge Madrazo, and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Jeffrey Davidow, toured several checkpoints in some southern Mexican states, including Guerrero, Chiapas and Quintana Roo, where Mexico has concentrated drug interdiction efforts in an operation to seal off its borders, seas and airspace to curb the flow of drugs. The Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control was able to see first-hand the new applied technologies such as x-ray equipment at border posts to detect drug shipments. ''Attorney General Jorge Madrazo's invitation for us to meet is an example of the sort of top level cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico on counter narcotics issues that must be maintained and strengthened'' General McCaffrey said. For his part, Attorney General Madrazo stressed that the Operation has yielded positive results. ''If the cocaine that is produced in Central America is directed to the United States, let not it cross through our territory,'' he stressed. Mexico's ''Operation Sealing Off'' involves a total of 20,291 police, including PGR agents, and Navy and Army personnel to patrol the country's Caribbean and Pacific coasts. The goal is not only to interdict drug shipments but to prevent drugs from ever entering Mexico.  Contact: Jose A. Zabalgoitia of the Embassy of MexicoPhone: 202-728-1650Washington, Feb. 14 /U.S. Newswire - The above article was released today by the Embassy of Mexico:http://www.embassyofmexico.orgPublished: February 14, 2000© Copyright 2000 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. Related Articles On Barry McCaffrey:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/McCaffrey.shtmlhttp://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+McCaffrey
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on February 14, 2000 at 17:00:59 PT
Need I say it?
How many times do you have to burn your fingers before you realize stoves are hot? How many times do you have to cut yourself before you realize knives are sharp?How many botched joint drug interdiction operations, how many dead DEA agents and informers, how many billions of dollars do you have to waste before you realize that the Mexican government is so riddled by corruption it is pointless dealing with them? As the old saying goes, Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. McCaffrey's been fooled by the Mexicans so many times he could get a job at a medieval festival playing the village idiot.
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