U.S.-Mexico Relations: President Calderon's Frustration
On Tuesday, El Universal, one of Mexico City's leading newspapers, published an interview with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, in which he expressed his frustrations with U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The cables discussed the shortcomings of Mexico's intelligence services, the conduct of its army in the fight against drug cartels, and the inability of Mexican authorities to work together to topple the cartels. One January 2010 cable read,"Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of." Calderón's remarks came just a week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in an ambush on a road in north central San Luis Potosi state. In the past 24 hours, three steps have been taken to reduce the tensions between the Mexican and U.S. governments. Mexico's Army captured Julián Zapata Espinoza, the main Zetas suspect in the death of ICE Special Agent Zapata; President Obama spoke with President Calderón and thanked him for Mexican efforts to bring to justice those responsible for Zapata's death; and it was announced that President Calderón will travel to Washington to meet with President Obama next week (March 2 & 3) to discuss the bilateral relationship between the Mexico and the United States. Here's a translation of an excerpt of the interview with President Calderón:
Is the topic of security going through a rough spot with the United States? It has always been complex and especially with this topic. Both President Bush and President Obama were willing to cooperate on this, but evidently cooperation on an institutional level has ended up being notoriously insufficient. What do the Americans need to cooperate on? In reducing drug consumption, they haven't reduced it. And secondly, in stopping the flow of arms, and they haven't reduced it, but instead it's increased. What is your opinion about the cables exposed by WikiLeaks? The ambassadors or whoever wrote those cables exaggerated. They always want to carry out their own agendas in front of their own bosses, and they have caused a lot of damage because of the stories they tell and that, in truth, they distort. There are so many cases of this that it isn't worth talking about. Can you cite a particular cable? The ones that talked about the lack of coordination between the different agencies. I don't have to tell the U.S. Ambassador how many times I met with the security cabinet; the truth is that it is none of his business. I do not accept nor do I tolerate any type of intervention. But his ignorance has translated into a distortion of what is happening in Mexico and it has caused an impact and an irritation in our own team. Where there is a lack of coordination is between the United States' intelligence and security agencies. We see that the DEA, the CIA, and ICE always have a policy of passing the buck without getting results. The truth is that they don't coordinate with each other and they're rivals.