NYT reports:
As Mexico’s military staged its annual Independence Day parade in September, spectators filled the main square of Mexico City to cheer on the armed forces. Nearly 2,000 miles away in Washington, American officials were also paying attention.But it was not the helicopters hovering overhead or the antiaircraft weapons or the soldiers in camouflage that caught their attention. It was the man chosen to march at the head of the parade, Gen. Moisés García Ochoa, who by tradition typically becomes the country’s next minister of defense.The Obama administration had many concerns about the general, from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s suspicion that he had links to drug traffickers to the Pentagon’s anxiety that he had misused military supplies and skimmed money from multimillion-dollar defense contracts.In the days leading up to Mexico’s presidential inauguration on Dec. 1, the United States ambassador to Mexico, Anthony Wayne, met with senior aides to President Enrique Peña Nieto to express alarm at the general’s possible promotion.That back-channel communication provides a rare glimpse into the United States government’s deep involvement in Mexican security affairs — especially as Washington sizes up Mr. Peña Nieto, who is just two months into a six-year term. The American role in a Mexican cabinet pick also highlights the tensions and mistrust between the governments despite public proclamations of cooperation and friendship[...]In the end, General García Ochoa did not get the job. Instead, it went to Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who Mexican officials said had become close with Mr. Peña Nieto when he served as governor of the state of Mexico and General Cienfuegos commanded the area’s military base.As for General García Ochoa, he was dispatched to a military base in the northern border state of Coahuila, a hotbed of cartel-related prison breaks, police corruption and political assassinations.
Sadly, the US has been meddling in Mexican affairs since before the time of Porfirio Diaz. He might not have actually said this, but it remains true nonetheless: "¡Pobre México! ¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!"
ReplyDeleteWe?
ReplyDeleteDidnt the Pope recently come out against US foreign policy?
ReplyDeletePot, kettle, black. Hilarious.
ReplyDelete"...from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s suspicion that he had links to drug traffickers to the Pentagon’s anxiety that he had misused military supplies and skimmed money from multimillion-dollar defense contracts..."