The US ambassador to Mexico has resigned after a public dispute with Mexican President Felipe Calderon over the handling of the war against Mexico’s powerful drug gangs.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Saturday that she and US President Barack Obama had accepted US Ambassador Carlos Pascual’s resignation “with great reluctance.”
The US and Mexico have long lauded their close economic ties and cooperation on security issues, with more than US$1 billion in US aid being funneled to Mexican forces to battle the drug cartels.
However, a diplomatic fight erupted after US Department of State documents published by WikiLeaks showed Pascual criticizing Mexican authorities’ lack of coordination in operations targeting cartel leaders.
Calderon lashed out in an unusually critical newspaper interview on Feb. 22, saying Pascual had shown “ignorance” and distorted what was happening in the country.
He also said US security forces failed to coordinate their own efforts and saw each other as “rivals.”
Calderon is facing increasing pressure in Mexico over his security strategy because the death toll from drug violence has climbed to more than 36,000 since he took office in late 2006.
In a visit to Washington earlier this month, Calderon reportedly requested that Pascual be removed from his post.
Pascual decided to resign “to avert issues raised by President Calderon that could distract from the important business of advancing our bilateral interests,” Clinton said on Saturday.
The announcement came as a surprise just as Obama began a five-day trip to Latin America, where he is visiting El Salvador, Brazil and Chile, to shore up ties with the region.
Mexico and the US trade more than US$1 billion a day.
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