Mexican official: CIA 'manages' drug trade [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Mexican official: CIA 'manages' drug trade
Spokesman for Chihuahua state says US agencies don't want to end drug trade, a claim denied by other Mexican officials.
Chris Arsenault Last Modified: 24 Jul 2012 14:16

Juarez, Mexico - The US Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces "don't fight drug traffickers", a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico has told Al Jazeera, instead "they try to manage the drug trade".

Allegations about official complicity in the drug business are nothing new when they come from activists, professors, campaigners or even former officials. However, an official spokesman for the authorities in one of Mexico's most violent states - one which directly borders Texas - going on the record with such accusations is unique.

"It's like pest control companies, they only control," Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, the Chihuahua spokesman, told Al Jazeera last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

A spokesman for the CIA in Washington wouldn't comment on the accusations directly, instead he referred Al Jazeera to an official website.

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/07/2012721152715628181.html