Mexico's Calderon wants U.S. ambassador out

[Judi Lynn]

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.

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

[bemildred]

1. Nothing quite like a "broad U.S. strategy to help Mexico". nt

[naaman fletcher]

2. a lot of good it seems to be doing.

The only workable strategy is, of course, for Mexico to legalize drugs.

[Judi Lynn]

3. 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

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