Mexico, Colombia, and USA comparison for Mrs. Clinton

“Illicit drugs:

“major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2007 rose to 6,900 hectares yielding a potential production of 18 metric tons of pure heroin, or 50 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation increased to 8,900 hectares in 2007 and yielded a potential production of 15,800 metric tons; government conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world; continues as the primary transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America, with an estimated 90% of annual cocaine movements toward the US stopping in Mexico; major drug syndicates control the majority of drug trafficking throughout the country; producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering center; major supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the US market (2007)”

“Illicit drugs:

illicit producer of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis; world's leading coca cultivator with 167,000 hectares in coca cultivation in 2007, a 6% increase over 2006, producing a potential of 535 mt of pure cocaine; the world's largest producer of coca derivatives; supplies cocaine to nearly all of the US market and the great majority of other international drug markets; in 2005, aerial eradication dispensed herbicide to treat over 130,000 hectares but aggressive replanting on the part of coca growers means Colombia remains a key producer; a significant portion of narcotics proceeds are either laundered or invested in Colombia through the black market peso exchange; important supplier of heroin to the US market; opium poppy cultivation is estimated to have fallen 25% between 2006 and 2007; most Colombian heroin is destined for the US market (2008)”

“Secretary of State Clinton compares Mexico's drug violence to Colombia's

By William Booth

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 8, 2010; 8:31 PM

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the surging drug violence in Mexico now resembles war-torn Colombia a generation ago, with criminal cartels looking like "insurgencies" battling for control of territory.

"It's looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narco-traffickers controlled certain parts of the country," Clinton said at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Mexico quickly responded. In an afternoon news conference, Mexican President Felipe Calderon's national security adviser Alejandro Poire said, "We do not share these findings, as there is a big difference between what Colombia faced and what Mexico is facing today."”