By Mica RosenbergReuters
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has resigned, the State Department said on Saturday, after a public dispute with Mexican President Filipe Calderon over Mexico's handling of efforts to combat drug trafficking.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and President Barack Obama had accepted Ambassador Carlos Pascual's resignation after a year and a half in his post
"It is with great reluctance that President Obama and I have acceded to Carlos's request," Clinton said in a statement.
The diplomatic spat arose after the website WikiLeaks published State Department documents showing embassy officials criticizing Mexican authorities' lack of coordination in operations targeting powerful drug cartels.
Calderon lashed out in an unusually critical newspaper interview with the daily El Universal on February 22, saying Pascual had shown "ignorance" about current events and distorted what was happening in the country.
The United States is providing millions of dollars in aid to Mexican security forces battling drug gangs and the two countries have long lauded their security cooperation and close economic ties.
"Carlos has relayed his decision to return to Washington based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues raised by President Calderon that could distract from the important business of advancing our bilateral interests," the statement said.
Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/20/us-mexico-usa-idUSTRE72J09F20110320
I wish he hadn't resigned. I tried linking the english version of zocalo..their take
ReplyDeletehttp://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.zocalo.com.mx/seccion/c/coahuila-saltillo/&ei=C4KGTcqIFoa2sAOk8aj8AQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CEMQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dzocalo%2Bsaltillo%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADRA_en%26prmd%3Divnsm
He gets ousted for being honest about the Mex military being risk adverse. It's true...More so with their police, but all of them back down at times or give a pass. It is what it is.....Why do you think the gov begs us to train them......Obama needs to grow a backbone and deal with these issues instead of getting on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteObama has no balls
ReplyDeletewhen it came to courage our American prez got left out totally.maybe that is why he likes basketball so much,he wishes he had some
ReplyDelete