Mexico's Calderon wants U.S. ambassador out

[Judi Lynn]

Source: McClatchy News

Thursday, Mar. 17, 2011
Mexico's Calderon wants U.S. ambassador out
By TIM JOHNSON - McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon is waging a harsh campaign against the U.S. ambassador here, repeatedly demanding over the past month that he be replaced in a tiff that has strained ties between the two countries.

Calderon is barely on speaking terms with U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual, whom he has said publicly he doesn't trust. Analysts say Calderon's anger stems from both Pascual's views critical of Mexico contained in secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website and the divorced ambassador's selection of a girlfriend - the daughter of a key opposition legislator.

Pascual has won praise in Washington as the architect of a broad U.S. strategy to help Mexico fight soaring drug-related violence, and analysts say the White House expects Calderon's pique to blow over.

~snip~
Calderon lobbed his first salvo at the Cuban-born Pascual in an interview with the Mexico City daily El Universal on Feb. 22, saying the U.S. envoy suffers from "ignorance" and lambasting leaked cables under his name offering an unflattering view of Mexican security agencies.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/03/17/1739908/mexicos-calderon-wants-us-ambassador.html

[RedCloud]

1. Eye chee wow wow. NT

[Judi Lynn]

2. "U.S. Ambassador to Mexico: Who Is Carlos Pascual?"

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico: Who Is Carlos Pascual?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

In April 2009, President Obama proposed Carlos Pascual as the next U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. This was a controversial choice because his specialty is not Latin America, but rather converting newly independent or failed states to democracy and free market capitalism.


Born in 1959 in Cuba, Pascual emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of three. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University in 1980 and his Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1982.

Pascual joined the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1983. In addition to working at the agency’s Africa Bureau in Washington, DC, Pascual was posted to Sudan, South Africa and Mozambique. In June 1992, Pascual became director of USAID’s Office of Program Analysis and Coordination for the New Independent States Task Force. From February 1994 to June 1995 he was deputy assistant administrator for Europe and the New Independent States. In that position, he oversaw budget and policy development for USAID’s annual programs of $1.2 billion in the region.

In June 1995, Pascual left USAID for the National Security Council (NSC), where for three years he was director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for economic policy generally and for Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. From July 1998 to January 2000, Pascual served as special assistant to the President and NSC senior director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, where he guided US policy related to democracy and market change in Ukraine, and stability, security, and democracy concerns in the Caucasus and Central Asia. From October 2000 to August 2003, Pascual served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.

More:
http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/US_Ambassador_to_Mexico__Who_Is_Carlos_Pascual_90513

http://farm5.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/4042/4459159361_329df8d7e1.jpg http://media.commercialappeal.com.nyud.net:8090/media/img/photos/2009/08/09/10obama2_t300.jpeg

[Peace Patriot]

3. U.S./Mexico policy is to flood Mexico with guns, stir up gang wars, bolster militaristic/fascist

forces, keep the trillion-plus dollar cocaine revenue stream going (but concentrate it in fewer hands), privatize Mexico's oil and anything else that can be looted and prevent a leftist from getting elected president. A strong leftist came within a hairsbreadth (0.05%) of being elected in the last presidential election (amidst widespread accusations of rightwing election fraud). That has to be prevented at any cost.* The cost is billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to create mayhem in Mexico and a climate of fear favorable to the rightwing.

The model is Colombia, where U.S. taxpayers' $7 billion bought the murders of thousands of trade unionists, human rights workers, teachers, community activists, political leftists, journalists, peasant farmers and others, by the Colombia military and its death squads, the theft of land from 5 million peasant farmers, the creation of a terrorized, impoverished slave labor force, consolidation of the cocaine trade into fewer hands, and the promotion of a fascist/militaristic culture in which military units would lure young men with jobs, murder them and dress their bodies up like FARC guerrillas (to earn bonuses and impress U.S. senators with their "body counts")--all as the blood-drenched prep for U.S. "free trade for the rich." U.S. corporations--such as Chiquita and Drummond Coal--were doing their part as well, by hiring rightwing death squads to murder labor leaders.

The corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" is the most useful U.S. tool for destroying other democracies. That is what the U.S. is doing in Mexico, overseen by this snake-in-the-grass, Carlos Pascual, from the USAID (arm of the CIA).

----------------------

*(One of the rightwing coup generals in Honduras said that the purpose of their coup was "to prevent communism from Venezuela reaching the United States" (quoted in a report on the coup by the Zelaya government-in-exile). Mexico, right on our border, is the last bastion against "communism from Venezuela"--i.e., free health care for the poor, resources poured into education, loans/grants to small businesses, good wages/benefits and well thought out land reform, honest elections, encouragement of public participation, promotion of minority and women's rights, and a "New Deal"-like government that views "organized money" the way FDR did. These democratic ideas must be prevented from "reaching the United States" and prevented and destroyed wherever they arise "south of the border." The U.S. "war on drugs" IS the U.S. war on democracy, here and in Latin America.)

[Astraea]

5. these are better reasons for wanting Pascual out

I doubt Calderon the impostor shares the same view.

[Judi Lynn]

8. You see right to the heart of it. This policy hurts everyone other than the oligarchs. n/t

[freshwest]

12. Strong words, wow. Never even heard of this guy before. Thanks.

[ixion]

4. "his specialty is ...

converting newly independent or failed states to democracy and free market capitalism."

Sounds like he's a Pax Americana lackey to me.

[LuckyLib]

6. The largest population of Latinos in the US is of Mexican heritage. There are many

talented, progressive, prepared, thoughtful bilingual individuals of Mexican heritage with the gravitas to make wonderful ambassadors. Our government chooses a Cuban-American? Hmmmmmmm.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Deeply strange, by all means. Sickening. n/t

[rabs]

9. Let us not forget

Hugo Llorens, U.S. ambassador in Honduras before, during, and after the coup in Honduras in which scores of opposition people were killed, beaten and tortured by golpista police and army troops.

Otto Reich, a sinister character with clout in Hil's state department regarding Latam issues. This dude has been around since the Reagan days.

Both are Cuban Americans.

There are probably more.

[EFerrari]

10. PJ Crowley just tweeted that this resignation is evidence

of how damaging Wikileaks is. I replied that outing an ambassador working against the interest of his nation is not damage but transparency and shows how much we need Wikileaks.

[freshwest]

13. Agreed, we need to see what they're hiding.

[Bucky]

11. Maybe he got the job based on his skills & past performance rather than tokenism.

I know some folks have trouble with the concept, but not every minority is a token.

[No Elephants]

14. Articles in OP and Replies 2 & 3 make pretty clear why he was appointed.

Besides, in all of the U.S., there must be thousands of people who are qualified to be ambassador to Mexico, including Mexican Americans. Implying it would be tokenism and not ability if a Mexican American had been appointed instead of this tool is....

Sometimes words fail even me.

[Bucky]

15. I wonder how many people bitched about him being from Cuba when he was ambassador to Ukraine.

The articles seem to imply that he got the job based on his performance record.

[No Elephants]

16. I never "bitched" about his being from Cuba. Maybe you should address

that comment to the poster who raised that objection.

My beef was with your reply, not with anyone's national origin.

Eta. Disagree as well with your interpretation of what the artiles say about him.

[No Elephants]

17. If this guy really knows how to "fight soaring drug-related violence," why not tell U.S. mayors?

We're going to teach Mexico something we've been unable to do in the US?