On the recordMay 20, 2010
I think President Calderon's speech to Congress and to the American people was important and timely and really touched some issues of controversy which we cannot ignore. He acknowledged the fact that his country is being torn apart by drug gangs and drug cartels. He acknowledged the obvious: the object of their commerce is to sell drugs in the United States of America. Our insatiable appetite for narcotics is creating a situation where people are engaged in lawlessness and violence and murder and mayhem in his country. We have to acknowledge that as the reality of the relationship between our two countries. It is not enough for us to lament the violence in Mexico without equally being prepared to say we have to do something on our side of the border to deal with drugs moving into the United States and the market for those drugs in our cities and States. He also raised the important issue about the firearms that are flowing from the United States of America into Mexico, into the hands of these lawless members of these drug cartels.
