Peña Nieto repeated several times that the fight against crime needed to be “effective, with results.”
“We should set measurable objectives over a determined period of time that are agreed by both governments,” he said.
World Digest: May 20, 2013
Pakistan’s incoming prime minister calls for talks with the Taliban; Egypt beefs up security in Sinai.
China urges N. Koreans to release fishing crew
The capture of a Chinese fishing boat in early May could worsen a diplomatic rift between allies.
Speed limit proposal for autobahn strikes some as simply un-German
In the land of BMW and Porsche, the right to drive fast on the highway is viewed by many as inalienable.
In Iran, disputes over foreign policy divide presidential candidates
Disagreements on how to deal with the West and the slumping economy could sway voters June 14.
Afghan peace process stalled by larger fears
As the Taliban steps up attacks, the prospects for negotiated settlement to the conflict appear dim.
Last month, Peña Nieto announced that the former chief of the Colombian National Police, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, will become his top security adviser. Peña Nieto called Naranjo “the world’s best cop.”
Naranjo is close to the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies, and his appointment was seen as a signal that Peña Nieto would remain a solid partner.
In Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and other parts of the region, American agents from the DEA and other agencies work side by side with local police and military to combat drug trafficking, gathering intelligence and staging strikes in U.S. helicopters.
But Mexico has long resisted joint operations, and Peña Nieto said they would violate Mexican sovereignty.
“I think there should be an exchange of technology, of intelligence, but I insist there should be respect for the constitutions of both countries,” he said.
While U.S. diplomats often highlight the $1.6 billion in drug-fighting aid provided to Mexico since 2008 — the delivery of Black Hawk helicopters or the role retired FBI agents play as instructors at Mexican police academies — the Mexican government prefers to play down the assistance.
Mexican military officers go north to the United States for training, but Mexico has never acknowledged any training taking place here.
“It could take place on either side” of the border, Peña Nieto said. “It’s not an issue of sovereignty.”
Memories are long here of the 19th-century wars and U.S. military incursions that transferred huge swaths of Mexican territory into American hands. There are no U.S. military bases in Mexico, and American law enforcement agents in the country are not allowed to carry weapons, even for personal protection.
In recent years, Calderón has often criticized the United States as the world’s most voracious drug consumer and complained that weapons smuggled south are stoking the violence.
Peña Nieto declined to blame U.S. guns. “We’re not trying to change the laws of the United States,” he said. “I respect the laws of the United States as defined by the American people.”
“But I am in favor of better gun-trafficking enforcement. Just as we’ve seen more control over the movement of migrants” across the border, Peña Nieto said.
To deal with Mexico’s notoriously corrupt municipal police forces — with their underpaid, outgunned officers — Peña Nieto proposes to eliminate them outright.
Instead, he would create a single police force in each of Mexico’s 31 states whose members would fight crime alongside an expanded force of federal police.
The military would be pulled back to the barracks and would be replaced by a new paramilitary-style national “gendarmerie” of 40,000 officers under civilian command.
“This is a plan that is still being developed,” he said.
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