Obama to address illegal flow of US weapons on Mexico trip

Apr 14, 2009, 1:36 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama plans to send a 'clear signal' to Mexico about the US responsibility for shared economic and security challenges when he visits Thursday and Friday in Mexico City, top administration officials said Monday.

Among the top items on the agenda will be Mexico's demand that the US put as much effort into stopping the flow of weapons and illegal cash south through the border as Mexico is currently putting on plugging the drugs that flow north.

Obama's stop in Mexico on his way to the Summit of the Americas, which starts Friday in Trinidad and Tobago, is meant to send a 'very strong signal' to Mexican President Felipe Calderon that Obama 'admires his work' in confronting drug trafficking and the escalating violence and corruption it fuels, said Denis McDonough, deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, in a pre-trip briefing to reporters in Washington.

As late as Sunday, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican ambassador to Washington, alleged on a US talk show that 90 per cent of all weapons seized in Mexico come from the US.

Sarukhan suggested that if Congress reinstated the US ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004, it would have a 'profound impact' on the number and calibre of weapons going into Mexico.

Daniel Restrepo, White House director for western hemisphere affairs, told reporters that Obama 'understands the challenge formed by the flow of illegal weapons.'

He referred to the huge initiative announced late last month to send more X-ray machines and agents to the border to inspect trucks and cars crossing south into Mexico.

'That's why (Obama) took the stance to do more from our own enforcement capacity,' Restrepo said.

Laws that are already on the books will be enforced, he said.

'That is the message the president will be carrying with him ... (of) doing our part on our side of the border.'

Obama has steered clear of the politically explosive issue of advocating more stringent controls on gun sales. The right to bear arms is anchored in the US constitution and has a huge constituency.