Mexico's President-Elect Endorses Obama Drug Campaign Pledge
Incoming leader had previously failed to set out clear position on war on drugs.
Mexico's President-Elect Endorses Obama Drug Campaign Pledge
Incoming leader had previously failed to set out clear position on war on drugs.
Mexican president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto has endorsed a pledge by his United States counterpart Barack Obama to continue the war on drugs.
In comment posted on Twitter late on September 13, Peña Nieto said, “I concur with @BarackObama: we will continue to work for the security of the region and the wellbeing of both nations."
His tweet was in response to Obama’s declaration, in an interview for the Spanish news agency Efe earlier that day that "our cooperation with Mexico on dealing with [the] transnational drug trade is unprecedented and we'll continue to build on that with the new administration."
Enrique Peña Nieto is a member of Mexico’s PRI party, which governed Mexico for 71 years from 1929 to 2000.
He was elected in July 2012, although his win was challenged by opposition parties and he was only declared the winner on August 31, when an electoral tribunal judged his victory to be valid.
He will take over as president on December 1.
Peña Nieto and the PRI have yet to outline a clear position on the current administration’s “War on Narcotraffic”, which has US backing. Conflict over drugs has claimed over 60,000 lives and tarnished Mexico’s international reputation.
A September 2011 opinion poll by a number of Mexican organisations led by the Collective for Analysis of Security and Democracy showed that while two-thirds of respondents believed the war on drugs should continue, a majority believed that the government was losing the battle.
Dana Sants is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist in Mexico.
