Word: mexicanized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with nary a gringo dignitary in sight, Mexican officials carried out a less dazzling - but nonetheless remarkable - operation last weekend that should have grabbed Washington's attention. All 700 of Mexico's federal customs agents, a club notorious for corruption and a less than robust devotion to duty, were booted and replaced with a new force that's two times larger and apparently many times more professional. The 1,400 new agents, said a government statement, passed "a strict selection process that included psychological and toxicological tests, as well as the necessary investigations to ensure they have no criminal record...
...that fuel the country's horrific drug violence. But it's also a reminder that the U.S. needs to channel far more of its antidrug aid not at short-term, headline-grabbing hardware like Black Hawk helicopters but at longer-lasting, if less sexy, institutional reforms like Mexican customs overhaul. If the U.S. can help Mexico revamp its hopelessly venal and dysfunctional police forces in similar fashion - better vetting, training, pay and intelligence infrastructure - experts believe it will do much more in the long run to reduce the tons of drugs that flood the U.S. and the narcobloodshed that threatens...
...Mexican law-enforcement triumphs always seem to greet visits by top U.S. officials. When U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder arrived in Mexico City this year, a major drug-cartel kingpin was suddenly arrested. As President Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón this month in Guadalajara, an alleged narcoplot to assassinate Calderón was foiled. Such spectacular collars are laudable, of course, but they're also timed to impress lawmakers in Washington who control hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. antidrug aid for Mexico...
...Mexico - the three-year, $1.4 billion Mérida Initiative - focuses on repairing that nation's law-enforcement and judicial systems. A chunk of this year's Mérida installment (the second) has been held up in Congress because of Senate concerns about human-rights abuses by the Mexican military - the 40,000 soldiers Calderón has had to rely on in his offensive against the drug cartels precisely because Mexico's cops are too corrupt and ill trained to do the job. That money should be released by the end of August. But when U.S lawmakers come...
...Most Mexican-security experts agree. What's more, says Arturo Alvarado, a security analyst at El Colegio de México in Mexico City, "Programs like Mérida also need to direct more resources at curbing demand for drugs in the U.S. This has to be more about getting at the root causes of the drug war, not flashy short-term gestures that benefit U.S. helicopter manufacturers...