US ambassador to Mexico resigns after public spat

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to  Mexico has resigned after a public dispute with President  Felipe Calderon over the handling of the war against Mexico’s  powerful drug gangs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday  that she and President Barack Obama had accepted Ambassador  Carlos Pascual’s resignation “with great reluctance.”

The announcement came as a surprise just as Obama began a  five-day trip to Latin America, where he is visiting El  Salvador, Brazil and Chile, to shore up ties with the region.

The United States and Mexico have long lauded their close  economic ties and cooperation on security issues, with more  than $1 billion in U.S. aid being funneled to Mexican forces to  battle the drug cartels.

But a diplomatic fight erupted after State Department  documents published by WikiLeaks showed Pascual criticizing  Mexican authorities’ lack of coordination in operations  targeting cartel leaders.

Calderon lashed out in an unusually critical newspaper  interview on Feb. 22, saying Pascual had shown “ignorance” and  distorted what was happening in the country.

He also said U.S. security forces failed to coordinate  their own efforts and saw each other as “rivals.”

Calderon is facing increasing pressure in Mexico over his  security strategy as the death toll from drug violence has  climbed to more than 36,000 since he took office in late 2006.

In a visit to Washington earlier this month, Calderon  reportedly requested that Pascual be removed from his post.

Pascual decided to resign “to avert issues raised by  President Calderon that could distract from the important  business of advancing our bilateral interests,” Clinton said on  Saturday.

Mexico and the United States trade more than $1 billion a  day across their long border and in recent years stepped up  intelligence sharing in operations to bring down major drug  traffickers.

Calderon’s office on Saturday said U.S.-Mexico relations  remained solid despite Pascual’s resignation and the two  nations would continue working together to deepen their  relationship “as neighbors and friends.”
But the alliance has recently been soured by the public  dispute between Calderon and Pascual and Washington’s failure  to stop weapons smuggling into Mexico. A decision to allow unmanned surveillance drones to fly  over Mexican territory has drawn criticism, with opposition  politicians saying it violates Mexico’s sovereignty. The  killing of a U.S. immigration official in a suspected drug  cartel ambush last month also raised tensions.