FORT WORTH Former Mexican President Vicente Fox told News 8 that Americans addicted to drugs are at the root of the border violence in his country.
This country has to think about legalization of drugs or make the decision to stop drug consumption, Fox explained. If you don't consume drugs, our problem is solved. We're doing our part. We're paying with 50,000 dead now.
Violence along the international border especially in Mexican cities that border Texas like Juarez, Piedras Negras, and Nuevo Laredo has increased in the the last 24-months with beheadings, kidnappings, and even car bombs detonated as drug cartels battle each other and the federal police who were sent in to solve the problem.
The former president spoke at The Vicente Fox Forum of World Leaders at Texas Christian University on Wednesday.
But in a one-on-one interview, Fox told News 8 the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border isn't his country's fault, but rather the United States' problem.
We don't deserve to be where we are. It's not even our problem, Fox said. Mexico does not consume drugs not at the level of the drug consumption in the United States.
President Fox said the U.S. and Mexico should also work together more closely to stop the free flow of weapons and ammunition south of the border.
Still, the drug war is a growing image problem for Mexico because it is wedged between the South American countries that produce drugs and the U.S., which uses them.
Overcoming such a geographic dilemma doesn't have an easy answer.
The strategy has to be changed, Fox said. We have to look for other ways of confronting this issue.
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com
