Three Amigos Talks Swine Flu, Drug Violence

Published Aug. 10, 2009 at 5:36 p.m.

Launching coordinated attacks against a swine flu epidemic and halting the violent drug war along the U.S. and Mexican border topped President Obama’s agenda at talks in Guadalajara with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, aides said.

“Everybody recognizes that H1N1 is going to be a challenge for all of us, and there are people who are going to be getting sick in the fall and die,” deputy White House national security adviser John Brennan said ahead of the North American Summit.

Obama arrived amid massive police and military presence last night for the summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Originally conceived as an annual economic meeting among partners of the North American Free Trade Agreement, security issues are at the forefront of this year’s affair.

The swine flu issue particularly hits close to home with Obama after an aide contracted H1N1 during the President’s trip to Mexico in April.

“The strategy and the effort on the part of the governments is to make sure we do everything possible and we collaborate to minimize the impact, and make sure that the severity of the illness is kept at a minimum,” added Brennen, Obama’s counterterrorism and national security adviser on the National Security Council.

Obama endorsed Calderon’s effort to take on Mexican drug traffickers, whose killing sprees threaten the security along border towns and cities. Political rivals charge that Calderon’s effort to fight the drug cartels is no more than window dressing.

“I think the Calderón government has, in fact, performed very courageously in the face of these cartels and we think that we have to do everything we can to be a helpful neighbor and a partner, to make sure that we are successful in this,” said national security adviser Jim Jones.

“This, unfortunately, is not a short-term proposition. We’ve seen our commitments in Colombia over a number of years to have success, so this is a long-term initiative and proposition,” he added.

- Ken Bazinet




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