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Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed the U.S. Congress on May 20, 2010 about the on-going drug war.

A major up-tick in drug-related violence and President Felipe Calderon’s meeting last month with President Obama garnered Mexico’s drug war, which has claimed more than 23,000 lives since 2006, some much-deserved attention, but after returning home and the most recent explosion of unabating violence—85 people killed in a 24-hour period—President Calderon is naming names. In a 5,000-word editorial published nation-wide in Mexico this week, he calls out Mexico’s neighbor to the north as “the biggest drug addict in the world,” and blames the U.S. for funding Mexican drug cartels with upwards of $25 billion a year, all of which he claims vastly overshadows the $1.3 billion the U.S. has pledged in aid to Mexico to train police, reform courts and supply drug-sniffing dogs, armored cars, night-vision goggles and Black Hawk military helicopters. How large of a role does the U.S. play in this ongoing bloodbath and how is the criticism being received?

Guest:

Dudley Althaus, Mexico City Bureau Chief, Houston Chronicle