Colombia’s drug mafias shift bases to Mexico: Official

September 4th, 2009 Ambassador: US must stop flow of arms to MexicoMONTERREY, Mexico — Washington's new ambassador to Mexico says the United States must stop the flow of weapons smuggled south across the border to improve security. Carlos Pascual says "we cannot continue to arm the cartels," referring to guns bought in the United States and sold to drug gangs in Mexico.

August 21st, 2009 Brazil's Silva urges Obama to explain bases planRIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's leader is urging President Barack Obama to meet with South American nations and discuss the growing U.S. military presence in Colombia.

August 6th, 2009 Uribe wins some, loses some on whirlwind tourBUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has said almost nothing in public about his meetings with South American presidents this week in response to fears that the U.S. military could become too powerful on the continent if given long-term leases on Colombian bases.

July 24th, 2009 Venezuela upset by pending US-Colombia pactCARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez says Colombia should not underestimate Venezuela's concerns over the neighboring country's decision to forge stronger military ties with the United States. From Venezuela's point of view, Chavez said Thursday, it's like "opening your house for your neighbor's enemy." Colombian officials have said Venezuela should not be concerned by a pact being negotiated to let U.S.

May 2nd, 2009 KARACHI - Bristling at suggestions of its involvement in the ethnic violence in this southern port city that claimed at least 34 lives earlier this week, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a partner in Sindh's ruling coalition, has demanded the removal of two key police officers for 'misleading' the prime minister on the clashes. Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club Friday on the phone from London, Mohammad Anwar of the MQM coordination committee accused Sindh Inspector General of Police Salahuddin Babar Khattak and Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed, of 'patronising the land and drug mafias' that were responsible for the violence.

April 30th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities have arrested a key member of the country's most ruthless drug cartel during a raid in the northeastern border city of Matamoros, the public safety secretariat said Thursday. Federal police officials managed to locate the whereabouts of Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of the top members of the notorious Gulf cartel, at a home in that city's Tlaxcala district.

April 25th, 2009 Obama health fine after trip to MexicoWASHINGTON — The White House says President Barack Obama's health is fine a little more than a week after he traveled to Mexico, where an outbreak of swine flu has killed at least 68 people and sickened more than 1,000. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Saturday that "the President’s trip to Mexico has not put his health in any danger." The top international health official says the new swine flu strain that has hit Mexico has "pandemic potential." Obama was in Mexico last week to meet with top government officials and talk about the growing problem with drug smuggling and border violence.

April 20th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Eight law enforcement officials, including two federal police officers and two prison guards, were killed in an attack on a police convoy in western Mexico, authorities said Sunday. According to the public safety secretariat, the assailants opened fired Saturday on the police convoy transporting an important drug suspect to a prison in the coastal state of Nayarit.

April 16th, 2009 BOGOTA - Colombia's most wanted drug trafficker Daniel Rendon has been arrested in an operation involving 500 police officers, an official said. Rendon, alias Don Mario, was arrested Wednesday by the National Police in San Jose in northwestern part of the country, Police Chief General Oscar Naranjo said.

April 16th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - At least 13 people have been killed in a gunbattle between the military and suspected drug traffickers in southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities said Thursday. The clash occurred Wednesday in San Nicolas del Oro, a town near the city of San Miguel Totolapan, during an operation by the security forces in the remote area, Guerrero's Public Security Minister Juan Heriberto Salinas Altes said.

March 3rd, 2009 MOSCOW - Up to 2.5 million Russians, including 140,000 minors, are drug addicts, an official said Tuesday. 'The overall number of drug addicts in our country is between 2 and 2.5 million people between the ages of 18 and 39,' said Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service.

February 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - More than 750 members of a Mexican drug-trafficking cartel were arrested during a 21-month operation by US, Mexican and Canadian police, the US Justice Department said Wednesday. The department said it had dealt a 'crushing blow' to the Sineloa cartel, also known as the Federation and one of the biggest drug gangs in Mexico.

January 23rd, 2009 MEXICO CITY - The Mexican Army has arrested a drug suspect who claimed to have dissolved 300 corpses of other drug criminals with corrosive chemicals over the past 10 years. Santiago Meza Lopez, 45, confessed to having disposed of rivals for drug kingpin Teodoro Garcia Simental, the defence ministry said in a statement Friday.

January 16th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities have ordered two former heads of Interpol Mexico to be sent to prison and await trial for their alleged nexus with the a powerful drug cartel, EFE news agency reported. According to the Attorney General's Office, Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia and Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas were brought before a court in the northeastern Mexican state of Nayarit Thursday and later jailed pending their trial.

December 30th, 2008 MEXICO CITY - Mexico will introduce harsher punishments to take on the country's organised drug cartels as well as government officials having links with the underworld, officials said. The Secretariat of National Defence (SEDENA), responsible for the country's security, has proposed to increase prison term up to 60 years, for former or serving officers in the army and the police accused of links with the underworld.