Mexico has halted all cooperation with the United States in the war on drugs to protest a U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting suspects to be abducted abroad for trial in the United States.
The ruling stems from a case involving the kidnapping in Mexico of a doctor wanted in the United States for alleged involvement in the 1985 torture slaying of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.The Mexican government on Monday night banned all activities by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Mexico until further notice. Mexican agents in the United States also will halt work.
Writing in the government newspaper El Nacional, columnist Hermenigildo Castro said Tuesday that the ruling subverts international law and "converts the world into a scenario in which the important thing is force, not law."
An editorial in the newspaper noted the decision came the same day that U.S.-Mexican cooperation resulted in the capture of three tons of cocaine bound for the United States. The seizure in the southern state of Guerrero was the biggest reported in Mexico so far this year.
A statement by the Foreign Affairs Department called for talks to set clear-cut ground rules for cooperation between the two nations in the drug fight. It implied the ban will last until such an agreement is reached.
The U.S. high court decision is "invalid and unacceptable" and Mexico will consider any attempt to capture suspects on its territory "a criminal act," the statement said.
"DEA agents commissioned in Mexico, as of this date, will not be able to carry out the activities they were authorized to, until new criteria of cooperation are determined," it said.
It emphasized that such criteria will have "to guarantee respect of our juridical system and the complete safeguard of national sovereignty."
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, officials don't expect a wave of snatchings soon. The law was never the main obstacle to these risky operations. They will always be the last resort.