Violence amid Obama's Mexico visit

MEXICO CITY — President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, outlined a common approach Thursday to combating drug violence, climate change and trade disputes but appeared to part ways over the urgency of reinstating a U.S. ban on assault weapons.

On his first presidential visit to Mexico, Obama praised Calderón for taking on the drug cartels, whose arsenals and economic power are threatening the integrity of the Mexican state. Obama said he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American weapons-trafficking treaty designed to curb the flow of guns and ammunition to cartels and other armed groups in the hemisphere.

Enforce existing laws

But he indicated that while he favors reinstating the U.S. ban on assault weapons, which Congress allowed to expire five years ago, the move would face too much political opposition to happen soon. He said better enforcing existing laws and increasing U.S. vigilance on the border to prevent weapons smuggling, as his administration has begun to do, would have a more immediate effect on stopping U.S.-made weapons from reaching Mexico's cartels.

"I believe we can respect the Second Amendment of the Constitution ... and curb the flow of assault weapons to Mexico," Obama said at a news conference with Calderón at Los Pinos, the presidential compound. "None of us are under the illusion this would be easy."

Calderón said drug violence has soared since the assault-weapons ban expired. He said he favored a solution that "respects the Second Amendment ... but prevents abuse of the right by criminals."

"The crime is not just in Mexico," he said. "The crime is in the United States."

Obama's visit, the first by a U.S. president to the capital since Bill Clinton's stop in 1997, represents a show of support for Calderón, who two years ago became the first Mexican president to fully deploy the army against drug cartels that supply an enormously lucrative U.S. market.

Since then, more than 10,000 people have died in drug-related violence. The Bush administration won approval of a three-year, $1.4 billion counternarcotics package for Mexico and some Central American countries last June, but the military hardware has been slow in arriving. Obama pledged to expedite its delivery.

Trade dispute discussed

The two men expressed confidence they would resolve a trade dispute originating in a vote last month by the U.S. Congress to cancel a pilot program allowing Mexican truckers on U.S. highways, as permitted by the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. They emphasized the need for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, although Obama did not say when he intended to push such legislation in Congress.

And they announced a new partnership to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases in both countries by sharing academic research and promoting alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power along the border, among other measures.

Drug violence continues

But drug violence dominated their public appearance on a day the Mexican military engaged in a firefight with suspected drug traffickers in the southern state of Guerrero. The battle left 15 smugglers and one soldier dead, and the military said it confiscated assault rifles and grenades in the aftermath.

In the days leading up to the president's visit, senior Obama administration officials said the government was focused on enforcing existing U.S. laws to stop weapons smuggling, although Mexican officials had called for more help.

Obama's announcement on the treaty — formally known as the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials — marks an additional step.

The Clinton administration signed the treaty, better known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA, after the Organization of American States adopted it in 1997.

In all, 33 countries in the hemisphere have signed the treaty. The United States is one of four nations that have yet to ratify the convention, although Obama administration officials said the U.S. government has sought to abide by its spirit for years. The treaty was sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1998, but no action has been taken.

The treaty requires countries to take steps to reduce the illegal manufacture and trade in guns, ammunition and explosives, and for sharing information between national law-enforcement agencies investigating arms smuggling.