World Wires

Mexican leader hints again at U.S. drug legalization

 

McClatchy Newspapers

Jaime said Calderon may be having a change of heart. His policies have hit crime groups hard, capturing or killing 23 major traffickers, but levels of violence keep rising.

"He's very frustrated," she said. "He thought his policies would yield positive results. Instead, he'll be leaving office with the country in a state of acute violence, worse than he got it."

Increasingly, Calderon has turned to criticizing the United States, describing the trend of U.S. states toward allowing medical marijuana as undercutting Mexico's war against drug traffickers.

Sixteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia now permit the use of medical marijuana.

If Calderon is feeling the weight of his presidency, he's also found time recently to unwind by scuba diving, rappelling into caves, scampering up Aztec pyramids and piercing through jungles on zip lines for an upcoming television series promoting tourism to Mexico.

Calderon was to visit the Guggenheim Museum in New York later Tuesday for a showing of "Mexico: The Royal Tour," a show hosted by Peter Greenberg that will air this fall on PBS. Calderon will attend another showing of the program in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

By playing an Indiana Jones-style tour guide to some of Mexico's most unusual destinations, Calderon hopes to boost the number of U.S. tourists beyond the 6 million who visited in 2010.

ON THE WEB

Calderon on CBS's "Early Show"

Official trailer of "Mexico: The Royal Tour"

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Mexico's Monterrey, famed for industrial might, slipping into gangsters' grip

U.S. drug thirst, gun sales must share blame for fire tragedy, Mexico says

Killings spark questions about journalists' ties to Mexican gangs

Check out this McClatchy blog: Mexico Unmasked

McClatchy Newspapers 2011

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