we don t know. and it s pretty clear that u.s. government is bringing a lot of capabilities to bear, to find the people who did this and bring them to justice, chris? general, you have a lot of experience in mexico both as a four-star commander and a drug czar in the clinton administration. what can you tell us about the capabilities that the u.s. government has that they can bring to bear in this situation? pretty limited. mexico is a dangerous mess. it s not just a big gulf sinaloa cartels but 200 groups for power. mexicans primarily. the homicide rate in mexico is unbelievable. there may be as many as 77,000 mexicans missing last year and the mexican president has had a
repatriated back to the united states, that occurred with the assistance of our mexican partners with the assistance of our officials in mexico. we are in the process of working to repatriate the remains of the two americans who were killed in this incident. so those bodies are not back? not yet. and i understand that the investigation is still early, but do you have any reason to believe that they were targeted? just as you said, the investigation is in its earliest days. i understand we may have more to share from the fbi at the appropriate time, but from the department of state it s important for us not to impinge on investigative equities in an investigation like this, that implicates the kidnapping of four americans, the death of two americans, and two americans who
we can understand what happens in mexico. the problem is, what do you do about it? the mexican authorities, the marine corps in particular, army to some extent, will strike back at the cartels if the president tells them to. they tried that arresting a significant cartel figure in the last year. there were 700 armed mexican cartel members with automatic weapons, anti-tank weapons, armored vehicles, that came out to attack the army when they conducted the operation. control of the mexican countryside is in tenuous hands right now. it s a dangerous place. general mccaffrey and ken dilanian, thank you very much. florida governor ron desantis delivering his state of the state address, providing fresh clues about what to expect if he runs for president.
policy of hugs, not bullets, which is complete nonsense. our law enforcement, as long as they stay out of the press, there s some reasonably low-level cooperation between mexican prosecutors and law enforcement in the u.s. but it s been limited, and, you know, the four border states right now are under state department avoid travel. five of the mexican states have the same level of danger from the state department categorizing them as iraq, afghanistan, and syria. so it s a huge challenge. mexico is our number one trading partner. they re vitally important to the united states and the border is not being controlled adequately. there are estimates, it s hard to get real numbers general, but as many as 2 million cross the border for various kinds of health care every year including dental and plastic surgery. 10 million is the latest
estimate for overall american visitors from back in 2021, including many student s for spring break. they ll be heading that way not long from now. what would you want any american traveling to mexico to know, general? you know, i get asked that by friends all the time. i wouldn t dream of going to mexico myself. the last time i was there the mexican government provided me extensive security. i thought i would disappear from the radar and they said no way. it s a dangerous place. mostly americans go down there and have fun and they are safe. but unfortunately, the mexican law enforcement authorities in jen really incompetent, they re corrupt. 20 to 30% of mexico is controlled by the drug cartels. don t let anybody tell you differently. so it s a challenging environment and i think the republicans right now proposed a