Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC
March 14, 2009
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 P.M.
DAVID MUIR: Now to the violent drug war brewing right on our border. The global recession is hitting Mexico especially hard. And as real jobs disappear, the illegal drug trade is booming. Mexico supplies the U.S. with about 90 percent of all the cocaine dealing here and the fight over who gets those profits is growing more deadly.
Tonight, Rachel Martin on U.S. efforts to keep the drugs and the violence out.
RACHEL MARTIN: Roughly one mile south of the U.S. border, there is a war going on.
ERIC HOLDER [U.S. Attorney General]: (From tape.) They are lucrative, they are violent, and they are operated with stunning planning and precision.
MARTIN: “They” are the Mexican drug cartels and as the Mexican government has tried to crack down on their operations, they’ve unleashed a torrent of violence in the towns that line their supply routes into the U.S – even brazenly bringing the drug war across the U.S. border.
HOLDER: (From tape.) The sad reality of what happens when these cartels are allowed to infiltrate our communities can be seen in every big city and small town in the United States of America.
MARTIN: But Mexico’s president is pointing the finger right back at the United States. That’s where the Mexican cartels are selling most of their drugs and buying most of their guns.
FELIPE CALDERON [President on Mexico]: (From tape, translated.) To get drugs into the United States, you have to have corrupt American authorities.
MARTIN: In an off-camera interview this week, President Obama owned up to America’s role.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From tape.) It’s really a two-way situation here. The drugs are coming north, we’re sending funds and guns south – and as a consequence these cartels have gained extraordinary power.
MARTIN: The U.S. has already sent $400 million to help train and equip Mexican security forces.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano are each planning visits to Mexico in coming weeks.
DAVID JOHNSON [Assistant Secretary of State, Narcotics & Law Enforcement]: (From tape.) The Mexican army and the Mexican police are clearly capable of winning this. But we need to help them do that.
MARTIN: But now U.S. border states want help, too. Texas and Arizona have asked for National Guard troops to boost border security. But the Obama administration is watching, waiting, and choosing its words carefully.
ROBERT GIBBS [White House Press Secretary]: (From tape.) Our long-term challenges relating to many policy decisions around the border are not going to be solved in that long term through the militarization of the border.
MARTIN: Obama says he’ll consider sending troops to the border if and when Mexico reaches a tipping point.
Rachel Martin, ABC News, Washington.
MUIR: And just today, in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, Mexican authorities have uncovered at least six bodies – perhaps more – in a mass grave there – all believed to be victims of this ongoing drug war.
March 14, 2009
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 P.M.
DAVID MUIR: Now to the violent drug war brewing right on our border. The global recession is hitting Mexico especially hard. And as real jobs disappear, the illegal drug trade is booming. Mexico supplies the U.S. with about 90 percent of all the cocaine dealing here and the fight over who gets those profits is growing more deadly.
Tonight, Rachel Martin on U.S. efforts to keep the drugs and the violence out.
RACHEL MARTIN: Roughly one mile south of the U.S. border, there is a war going on.
ERIC HOLDER [U.S. Attorney General]: (From tape.) They are lucrative, they are violent, and they are operated with stunning planning and precision.
MARTIN: “They” are the Mexican drug cartels and as the Mexican government has tried to crack down on their operations, they’ve unleashed a torrent of violence in the towns that line their supply routes into the U.S – even brazenly bringing the drug war across the U.S. border.
HOLDER: (From tape.) The sad reality of what happens when these cartels are allowed to infiltrate our communities can be seen in every big city and small town in the United States of America.
MARTIN: But Mexico’s president is pointing the finger right back at the United States. That’s where the Mexican cartels are selling most of their drugs and buying most of their guns.
FELIPE CALDERON [President on Mexico]: (From tape, translated.) To get drugs into the United States, you have to have corrupt American authorities.
MARTIN: In an off-camera interview this week, President Obama owned up to America’s role.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From tape.) It’s really a two-way situation here. The drugs are coming north, we’re sending funds and guns south – and as a consequence these cartels have gained extraordinary power.
MARTIN: The U.S. has already sent $400 million to help train and equip Mexican security forces.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano are each planning visits to Mexico in coming weeks.
DAVID JOHNSON [Assistant Secretary of State, Narcotics & Law Enforcement]: (From tape.) The Mexican army and the Mexican police are clearly capable of winning this. But we need to help them do that.
MARTIN: But now U.S. border states want help, too. Texas and Arizona have asked for National Guard troops to boost border security. But the Obama administration is watching, waiting, and choosing its words carefully.
ROBERT GIBBS [White House Press Secretary]: (From tape.) Our long-term challenges relating to many policy decisions around the border are not going to be solved in that long term through the militarization of the border.
MARTIN: Obama says he’ll consider sending troops to the border if and when Mexico reaches a tipping point.
Rachel Martin, ABC News, Washington.
MUIR: And just today, in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, Mexican authorities have uncovered at least six bodies – perhaps more – in a mass grave there – all believed to be victims of this ongoing drug war.