Speaking at the opening ceremony of a newly-constructed border checkpoint in northern Sonora on Friday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón stressed the international nature of Mexico’s drug-related violence.
According to the Mexican daily La Jornada, the president insisted that just as Americans are concerned about drugs and illegal elements crossing the border, Mexicans “don’t want Americans to continue to send us guns and dirty money illegally.” This announcement comes at a time when more and more American policymakers are citing lax gun laws in the southwestern United States as a major impediment in the war on drugs. As Reuters reported, Hilary Clinton raised eyebrows last year when she announced that much of the violence in Mexico was due to an “inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border” from the US.