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Mexico, US boost ties on border security, immigration
Mexico City (AFP) April 3, 2009 Mexico and the United States have increased ties on border security and immigration in the latest high-level meetings here, which ended Friday ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. A string of top US officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have passed through Mexico in recent weeks, promising to improve cooperation in the fight against the country's brutal drug gangs and to help stop the flow of firearms across the southern US border. US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday announced a deal aimed at streamlining repatriations of Mexicans from the United States, after meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa and President Felipe Calderon. "Cooperation and collaboration must be the cornerstone of how our nations address our shared border," Napolitano said in a statement. Napolitano, along with US Attorney General Eric Holder and top Mexican officials, on Thursday announced the creation of a joint group to combine efforts to stop the flow of firearms south of the border. More than 6,400 people have died since the start of last year in drug-related bloodshed in Mexico that is increasingly spilling over into the United States, and which is mainly carried out with US weapons. Calderon in a statement Friday praised the "constructive attitude" of the US administration of Obama -- who is due in Mexico April 16-17 -- on the issues of border security and tackling drug trafficking. The Mexican leader also presented a plan for six new or modernized border crossings, without giving further details. The repatriation deal aims to "guarantee a safe, orderly and humane repatriation process" and involves 30 local accords across the United States with Mexican authorities, according to a statement from the US Department of Homeland Security. Estimates suggest that some 300,000 undocumented Mexicans attempt to cross their northern border each year. Mexico has had a voluntary repatriation program in place for five years, under which tens of thousands of undocumented Mexicans have returned on special flights paid for by the Mexican government. With border violence in the headlines, the US Senate on Wednesday approved a 550-million-dollar package to stop the southward flow of guns and money to cartels from US sources, and Obama last week announced extra agents for the southern US border. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has gambled his presidency on the battle against drug trafficking and related violence, and launched a crackdown involving more than 36,000 troops over two years ago. But his efforts have unleashed a violent response from the cartels and aggravated turf wars for lucrative drug routes into the United States, the world's main consumer of cocaine. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Man dies after detonating bomb in China: police
Beijing (AFP) April 2, 2009A man died Thursday when he detonated a bomb in an office building in China's Muslim-populated Xinjiang region, police said. |
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