S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to lead a senior delegation to Mexico yesterday.
On the eve of the talks, US President Barack Obama spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon to “underscore his administration’s commitment to the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico,” National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.
The pair discussed their “mutual desire to work together for the benefit of the safety and security of citizens on both sides of our shared border,” Hammer said.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were to accompany Clinton for the talks with top Mexican security officials.
The meeting is set to focus on the Merida Initiative, a US$1.6 billion program of aid to fight organized crime. Most of the funds in the program, due to expire next year, are allocated to Mexico, with the rest going to other countries in Central America.
Mexico has been gripped by drug-related bloodshed around its northern border and other areas since Calderon launched a military clampdown on the country’s powerful drug gangs after taking office in December 2006.
More than 15,000 people have died in suspected drug attacks, which are increasingly affecting innocent bystanders.
In some of the latest attacks, suspected drug gang members engaged in shootouts with police around the northern economic hub of Monterrey and hijacked cars to set up scores of roadblocks last week. Two students died in the crossfire.
The three killings linked to the US consulate in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez on March 13 brought renewed US attention to the problem.
In other developments, the pre-dawn discovery of two bodies cut into pieces and shoved into two black bags brought a tragic end to a search for two missing police officers in the southern state of Guerrero on Monday.
Law enforcement officials say the bagged body parts were found at 3:15am outside police headquarters in Chilpancingo.
In the nearby resort of Acapulco, police found another two mutilated bodies and a threatening message outside the house of the city’s former deputy traffic police chief.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia