U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled Thursday to visit a police station in Mexico City and hold a discussion with students from Monterrey as part of a two-day visit to the U.S. neighbor to the south. Clinton arrived a day earlier for a trip that is being dominated by discussion of the increasing drug-related violence in Mexico and U.S. border states. On Wednesday, Clinton met with Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. “The criminals and kingpins spreading violence are trying to corrode the foundations of law, order, friendship and trust between us that support our continent,” Clinton said after the meeting. “They will fail,” she said at a press conference flanked by Espinosa. “We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you,” Clinton added. The new secretary of state made clear in comments on her way to Mexico that President Barack Obama's administration believes the United States bears some responsibility for the violence. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”
