US President Barack Obama stressed Monday that the drug violence wracking Mexico should be "everybody's problem" and impacts communities across North America.
He was flanked by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the White House press conference
during the North American Leaders Summit.
"I think we should be concerned about what's happening in Mexico
and Central America because when you have innocent families and women
and children who are being gunned down on the streets, that should be
everybody's problem, not just our problem, not just their problem,"
Obama said.
Pointing to the shared border between the United States and
Mexico, Obama said the violence could impact the ability of the
neighbours to do business with each other.
The US and Canada must also take drug trafficking seriously
because their citizens, both in large urban areas and remote rural
areas, are the ultimate consumers of many of the drugs from Mexico,
Obama said.
"Even in the remotest, most isolated parts of Canada or the United
States, they're being impacted by this drug trade," he said. "And
we've got to work cooperatively in order to deal with it."
Calderon called on his US counterpart to take even more action to
deal with weapons flowing south into his country that are arming drug
cartels.
Pointing to an increase in violence after the expiration of an
assault weapons ban in the US, Calderon said action, such as a
registry to track such weapons, needed to be taken or "we are never
going to be able to stop the violence in Mexico or stop a future
turning of those guns upon the US."
