Uruguay’s president José Mujica has been forced to backtrack from describing Mexico as a “failed state”, after the Mexican government summoned the Uruguayan ambassador to demand an explanation.
In an interview published on Friday, Mujica said that the disappearance of 43 students – believed to have been killed by a drug gang in collusion with local police in the south-western state of Guerrero – suggested that Mexico had become “a kind of failed state”.
“It gives one the sense, seen from a distance, that this is a kind of failed state, in which public authorities have completely lost control. They have been devoured from the inside,” Mujica told the Latin American language edition of Foreign Affairs.
In a statement on Sunday, Mexico’s foreign ministry said it it was “surprised and categorically rejects some of the comments expressed in the interview”, adding that it was summoning the Uruguayan ambassador.
Later on Sunday, Mujica backed away from his comments, pledging his solidarity with Mexico, and Central American countries afflicted by drug-related violence.
“These nations are not, and will not be failed states ... because they have the historical foundations of pre-Columbian nations, their parties and democratic decisions have political capital above and beyond the difficulties of today,” he said, according to a statement on the president’s website.
In the statement, Mujica appeared to place the blame for regional turmoil on the US: “All of Central America is paying the price for being a clandestine bridge towards the great market that not only consumes, but which also profits the most from this commerce,” he said.
In an interview with the Observer last week, Mujica said that his government had decided to legalise the sale of marijuana because a regulated market was preferable to the drug-fuelled violence which has blighted many Latin American countries.
“Drug trafficking is much worse than the consumption of marijuana,” he said. “And for those who don’t want to admit that, look at Mexico, look at Central America, look at Honduras, look at Guatemala, and you will see failed states, devoured from the inside by drug trafficking.”
