Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said on Saturday he would get the US military involved in Mexico’s war with drug cartels, in comments likely to upset the Mexican government.
The remarks appear to be a new misstatement on foreign policy by the Texas governor who is struggling to hold on to the mantle of frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Perry said that as president, he would work with Mexico in the same way the US has worked with Colombia to combat drug cartels.
“The way that we were able to stop the drug cartels in Colombia was with a coordinated effort,” he said in a campaign speech in New Hampshire.
“It may take our military” working with the Mexican government to win Mexico’s drug war, he said.
The US military has advisers in Colombia who are involved mainly in training, logistical support and intelligence backup for the Colombian armed forces as they fight cocaine traffickers and leftist guerrillas.
However, there are no US armed forces in Mexico fighting the drug war and Mexico strongly opposes any US military involvement in its territory, although it has received more than US$1 billion in US aid to take on the cartels.
Perry has stumbled before on foreign issues. He gave a rambling answer during a debate between candidates last month to a question about what he would do as president if the Taliban got hold of nuclear weapons.
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