Mexico's drug war has claimed the lives of over 120,000 people, seen 27,000 others go missing and caused a myriad of social problems over the past decade. And reportedly, Bill Clinton is now apologizing for the United States' involvement in the on-going low-intensity war between the government and Mexican drug cartels.
The former U.S. president met with President Enrique Peña Nieto at the Laureate Summit of Youth and Productivity in Mexico City on Friday, where he apparently made some comments about the war on drugs that have been interpreted as a U.S. apology by the Mexican media, Breitbart reported.
"I wish you had no narco-trafficking, but it's not really your fault," Clinton said at the summit organized by Laureate International Universities, a network of educational institutions in the private sector. "Basically, we did too good of a job of taking the transportation out of the air and water, and so we ran it over land. I apologize for that."
"I wish you didn't have any problems. Everybody's got problems," added Clinton, who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
The admission caused an immediate stir in Mexican media and on social networks, according to Fusion.
"Clinton apologizes to Mexico for drug trafficking," posted Mexican anchor Joaquín López-Dóriga on his website.
Additionally, Mexican magazine Proceso headlined its publication with, "Clinton apologizes for anti-narco war applied in Mexico."
Meanwhile the Clinton Foundation has since confirmed the 68-year-old's stance, earning praise from Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
"Of course one wishes he'd done the right thing when he was president and had the power to do so, but it's always better for an ex-president to apologize for his sins than to pretend he never sinned at all," Nadelmann told Fusion. "Let's just hope that Hillary Clinton will be far more supportive of major drug policy reform than she's been in the past."
Last year, Mexico recorded a historic number of disappearance cases, many of which have been linked to drug trafficking organizations. However the murder rate in Mexico, many of which are carried out by drug cartels, dropped by about 15 percent last year to 15,649 (about 13 per 100,000 residents), from 18,331 (about 15 per 100,000 residents) homicides in 2013.
