Washington Rejects the Truth
Caribbean leaders told U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Friday that Mexican drug cartels are moving more of their smuggling activities through their island nations.
"I think that narco-trafficking is a problem for the hemisphere as a whole. And wherever you put pressure, the traffickers will go where there is less resistance and where there is less capability," Gates told reporters.
Gates claims that the "pressure" was Plan Merida, the $1.6 billion U.S. program started in 2007 to help Mexico fight the cartels.
As of November of 2009, the U.S. had delivered about $214 million of the pledged $1.6 billion, and $204 million was earmarked for the purchase of eight used transport helicopters and two small surveillance aircraft. The idea that a few old helicopters disrupted the flow of drugs is silly. After all, Customs and Border Protection have plenty of helicopters, fixed wing and UAVs and they did little to stop smuggling.
Once again, high-ranking U.S. officials are denying the link between new fencing and the Mexican drug war. "This experience has taught me much," said Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol, the group that first identified the link. "I have learned that people in Washington reject the truth if it runs up against their open-borders agenda."
