MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in an interview
Friday that last month’s massacre of 72 migrants doesn't undermine
Mexico's moral authority to demand better treatment for its own
migrants.
"Of course we have the moral authority, because Mexican officials
are not shooting Central American youths at the border, but U.S.
agents are shooting Mexican migrants," Calderon said in an interview
with the Spanish-language Univision network.
"If we are talking about responsibility, at the root of this, in the
case of immigration, is the lack of immigration legislation in the
United States that would recognize this phenomenon," Calderon said.
The massacred migrants, most from Central America, were attempting
to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border when they were kidnapped by
what is believed to be a group of gunmen from Mexico’s Zeta drug
cartel, according to a man who survived the massacre.
In a joint meeting with Calderon, President Mauricio Funes of El
Salvador said that the home nations of migrants bear some of the
responsibility for immigration problems.
"In part, the greatest responsibility lies with our governments,
the Salvadoran government, for not having generated the employment
conditions, the welfare conditions, that doesn't leave our migrants
any choice but to look for other opportunities in the United States
and Canada."
Thirteen Salvadorans were among the dead identified so far in the
massacre in late August.
Funes also said, however, that he doesn't blame Mexico's government
for the massacre, and called for a joint effort to fight drug
cartels.
"We have come to have a conversation with the president of Mexico,
not to condemn him or criticize him," Funes said. "Rather the
opposite, to show him our support and offer our help in this fight."
Funes said the two countries formed a high-level working group to
develop joint strategies for combating the drug gangs.
* * * * *
So, a violent Mexican drug gang
massacres 72 Central Americans passing through Mexico on their way
to illegally cross the border into the U.S., and it's OUR FAULT that
they're dead. Maybe the translator left out part of the story?
I'd write an email to Calderon and
tell him he's full of shit, but he hasn't responded to the last one
yet. Maybe he can't read English.
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