cannabisnews.com: Ashcroft Meets Mexican Counterpart





Ashcroft Meets Mexican Counterpart
Posted by FoM on March 06, 2001 at 20:02:47 PT
By CNN's Terry Frieden at the Justice Department
Source: CNN
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has declared a renewed war on drugs as a top priority, promised his Mexican counterpart to find ways to work together during a meeting at the Justice Department early Tuesday. Taking a page from President Bush's visit to Mexico, Ashcroft emphasized his meeting with Rafael Macedo de la Concha marked the first visit by an attorney general from another nation. 
Relations between the United States and Mexico are crucial to law enforcement efforts to cope with drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal immigration, and border safety. "This is a new era in working together against crime," Macedo told his host. "There is so much we can do by cooperating," Ashcroft responded. Behind the public niceties are long-standing tensions over U.S. tactics associated with beefed up efforts to gain control over the Southwest border. More than 300 Mexicans and Central Americans died last year while trying to cross the border into the United States. Most of the deaths resulted from heat exposure or drowning. "About 90 percent of those trying to enter the U.S. are now turning to smugglers," said a Justice Department official involved in border safety issues. "Many times smugglers dump the migrants off and tell them to walk two hours and they can cross the border. But it may be a two-day walk, and there are many deaths on the Mexican side of the border too," the official said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has attempted to help spread the word in Mexico to discourage illegal crossings and warn of the dangers. The INS's Border Patrol has also increased its rescue training. New figures for the first fiscal quarter, which ended in January, show 53 more deaths on the U.S. side of the border. Of that number, 19 were Mexicans while the remainder could not be identified. Meanwhile, the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration continues to battle Mexico-based drug cartels responsible for an increasingly large share of illegal drugs smuggled into the United States. The DEA, which has invested heavily in efforts to help train and equip Mexican anti-drug agents frequently, has been critical of the relative lack of progress by Mexican law enforcement authorities. Mexican officials, meanwhile, continue to complain of U.S. law enforcement's insensitivity to issues of sovereignty as the two countries struggle for ways to cooperate in the drug war. Ashcroft has promised to step up anti-drug efforts but has provided no details on concrete steps the administration plans to take. Complete Title: Ashcroft Meets Mexican Counterpart, Promises CooperationSource: CNN (US Web)Author: CNN's Terry Frieden at the Justice Department Published: March 6, 2001Copyright: 2001 Cable News Network, Inc. Contact: cnn.feedback cnn.com Forum: http://community.cnn.com/ Website http://www.cnn.com/ Feedback: http://cnn.com/feedback/ CannabisNews Articles - John Ashcrofthttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=John+Ashcroft
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