Mexican Standoff

HE news regarding Mexico over the last few weeks has galled most Americans almost as much as it has people here. First came the arrest of General Jesús Gutiérrez, chief of the country’s drug-intelligence agency and allegedly in the pay of Juarez Cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Not long after that, the New York Times reported allegations that two Mexican governors had taken drug money. Then Humberto Garcia Abrego-whose brother Juan ran the Matamoros Cartel until his arrest last year-somehow disappeared while being questioned by police. Those same police seem incapable of catching any other cartel leaders-Carrillo or the Arellano Felix brothers, who are suspected of murdering Juan Cardinal Posadas in 1993.

Mexicans, meanwhile, are incensed over the certification process. They have a drug problem because America has one. Cartoonists down here have portrayed Uncle Sam as both a cokehead, snorting lines which turn out to be the stripes of the flag, and a junkie, teething a rubber cord to steady his arm as he signs the certification document.

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Sam Quinones

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HE news regarding Mexico over the last few weeks has galled most Americans almost as much as it has people here. First came the arrest of General Jesús Gutiérrez, chief of the country’s drug-intelligence agency and allegedly in the pay of Juarez Cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Not long after that, the New York Times reported allegations that two Mexican governors had taken drug money. Then Humberto Garcia Abrego-whose brother Juan ran the Matamoros Cartel until his arrest last year-somehow disappeared while being questioned by police. Those same police seem incapable of catching any other cartel leaders-Carrillo or the Arellano Felix brothers, who are suspected of murdering Juan Cardinal Posadas in 1993.

Mexicans, meanwhile, are incensed over the certification process. They have a drug problem because America has one. Cartoonists down here have portrayed Uncle Sam as both a cokehead, snorting lines which turn out to be the stripes of the flag, and a junkie, teething a rubber cord to steady his arm as he signs the certification document.