President Fox - end the Drug War now.
- "Mexico must urgently get out of this trap we're in."
- Drug-related violence has left approximately 50,000 dead
(NEWS HEADLINE - Fourteen headless bodies were found stuffed inside a van and nine more hanging from a bridge in a brutal day of gang violence in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo.)
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said his successor's military crackdown on drug cartels is a "useless war" and recommended exploring other avenues, including legalization.
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"Mexico must urgently get out of this trap we're in," Fox said here Wednesday in a meeting with foreign correspondents reports Fox News.
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According to Fox, Mexico is sandwiched between producer nations such as Colombia and the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs, the United States, and is therefore "paying an enormous price" in its fight against the country's numerous heavily armed drug mobs.
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Since President Felipe Calderón took the baton from Fox on Dec. 1, 2006, and began deploying tens of thousands of army soldiers and federal police to battle the cartels, drug-related violence has left approximately 50,000 dead, with many of the murders stemming from the gangs' turf battles over smuggling routes.
President Fox - Legalize Drugs
The 69-year-old former head of state upheld Portugal as an example of the merits of legalization, saying that since decriminalizing drugs in 1999 consumption there has fallen by 25 percent.
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Asked what would happen if his country decides to legalize drug consumption and whether the United States would give its consent, Fox responded: "Mexico can do it without consulting the United States."
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He cited figures showing that the drug-related murder toll has risen steadily throughout Calderón's five-and-a-half-year military offensive against the well-funded drug mobs.
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Looking ahead to the July 1 elections to choose Calderón's successor, Fox said he supports his PAN party and its presidential candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota, who trails frontrunner Enrique Peña Nieto, standard-bearer of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, by a wide margin.
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(Fox News)
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