Mexico eyes Colombian experience in drug battle
Source: Reuters
By Patrick Markey BOGOTA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Mexico's top prosecutor on Thursday looked to Colombia's experience in counter-narcotics and conflict for lessons to help his government battle drug cartels whose violence has engulfed parts of the country. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December, has started shipping imprisoned drug lords to face charges in the United States in a intensifying fight against narcotics smugglers who killed 2,000 people last year. Colombia, the world's No. 1 producer of cocaine, has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to combat the drug trade that has helped fuel the country's four-decade conflict with Marxist rebels and illegal paramilitaries. "Colombia has very rich experience in this sense and we are here to learn," Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters in Bogota before a meeting with U.S. ally President Alvaro Uribe. "It is not about exporting models. Each country has its own problems, with different actors and concerns, but certainly there are parallels," he said. He said the two governments would exchange intelligence and information on fighting traffickers and confiscating their illicit gains. Calderon has already sent 7,000 troops to his home state of Michoacan as gangs battle for control of drug routes there and in several other regions. Authorities beefed up security for judges after extraditing four major drug lords in January. Colombia produces more than 600 tonnes of cocaine a year most of it destined to the U.S. and European markets via routes including Mexico, Venezuela and the Caribbean, experts say. Uribe, a U.S.-trained attorney re-elected last year, has extradited more than 500 suspected traffickers to face charges in the United States as part of cooperation with Washington. Violence and kidnapping associated with the Andean country's war has decreased sharply after Uribe sent troops to retake parts of the country once controlled by rebels and other illegal armed groups. During the height of Colombia's conflict, drug lords declared war on the government in a campaign against the policy of extraditing traffickers to the United States. With a slogan "Better a Colombian tomb than a jail cell in the U.S.," cartels set off bombs and killed judges, politicians and police pressure the government. Colombia prohibited extradition in the 199Os before later reinstating the policy.
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