Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his Mexican counterpart Felipe
Calderon agreed Thursday to step up their two countries’ cooperation in
the fight against drug trafficking.
According to the Mexican Presidency, Colombian police forces will help train 10,000 Mexican
federal officers on tactics to combat organized crime. The two countries will also share intelligence information and work together in the training of anti-kidnapping units.
Calderon and Uribe are intensifying joint security efforts
as they also tighten cooperation with the U.S. in a bid to fight
cartels and drug-trafficking guerrillas. Colombia is the source
of 80 percent of cocaine in the U.S., while an estimated $17.2
billion of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs flows to the U.S.
from Mexico every year, according to the U.S. Justice
Department.
The U.S. has promised Mexico $1.1 billion in anti-drug aid
under the Merida Initiative. The U.S. has given Colombia more
than $6 billion in anti-drug and military aid since 2000 and is
working on an accord to operate anti-drug surveillance flights
from Colombian bases.
Since taking office in late 2006, Calderon has sent tens of
thousands of troops to cities and towns to fight drug gangs
battling over smuggling routes.
Mexico has had 4,244 deaths related to organized crime this
year, according to newspaper El Universal. The attorney
general’s office has declined to give official figures for 2009,
after it reported more than 6,200 deaths last year.
Uribe’s efforts to stem the flow of narcotics out of the
country has uprooted cartels and reduced the tenures of drug-
gang bosses from as long as 15 years in some cases to less than
15 months, according to Colombia’s police chief Oscar Naranjo.
Colombia has increased the numbers of urban and rural
security forces, introduced more spy networks and provided
rewards for information that leads to the capture of
traffickers. (source: Bloomberg)