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Anti-Drug Assistance Approved For Mexico
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"It's bothersome that on one side they wanted to . . . 'certify' the actions we are taking as if they did not trust us," she said.
In an interview, José Miguel Vivanco of New York-based Human Rights Watch said he was "quite disappointed in the government" of President Felipe Calderón.
"There was a huge overreaction by the government," Vivanco said.
The ice began to thaw, it seems, on June 8 when Mexican and U.S. lawmakers met in Monterrey, Mexico, for a binational conference. U.S. Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.) said in an interview that the lawmakers found common ground in Monterrey by "trashing their own executive branches" for not consulting with them when the measure was being drawn up.
After hearing the complaints about sovereignty firsthand, Bilbray and other U.S. lawmakers were more inclined to loosen conditions that had offended Mexicans.
"This is a national pride issue," Bilbray said.
Bilbray, whose district includes parts of the San Diego area, noted that the drug war in Mexico is now threatening his constituents. More than 1,800 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug violence, and Mexican cartels are increasingly crossing the border to kidnap people in the United States.
"I think we're beyond conditioning," Bilbray said in the interview, the day before the bill passed the Senate. "There's got to be a degree of faith here. If a fireman is going to take your child out of a burning room, you don't stop him to ask for his credentials."
