U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to the State Department in Washington, D.C., reported that lethal weapons, including anti-tank firearms and grenades, were stolen from military forces in Central America and then smuggled into Mexico through the Guatemala bord

U.S. Embassy Cables: 90 Percent of Mexican Drug Cartels’ Most Lethal Weapons Come From Central America–Not USA
(CNSNews.com) – The most lethal weapons used by drug cartels in Mexico are smuggled from Central America, not from the United States, according to U.S. Embassy cables unveiled by WikiLeaks. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reportedly wrote the cables following three bilateral conferences on firearms trafficking that took place in Mexico between March 2009 and January 2010.

Democrat Congressman: Drug Cartel Violence in U.S. Has Decreased; Only 29 People Died in San Diego in 2010
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that while violence caused by Mexican drug cartels has increased in Mexico, it has decreased on the United States side of the border, despite dire predictions. “There were 472 murders in Tijuana, while only 29 occurred on the other side of the border in San Diego, California,” Thompson said. And while 2,700 people died in Ciudad Juarez in 2010, only 4 people were murdered in El Paso, Texas – just across the U.S. border from that Mexican city, he added.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight, investigations and management subcommittee, which held the hearing, provided a different set of numbers.

McCaul said that since 2006, 35,000 people have been killed by drug cartel-related violence in Mexico.

Over the past year, McCaul said, the cartels have killed three people – two of them U.S. citizens – connected to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez; a gubernatorial candidate in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; 12 sitting mayors; and one U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent.

Texas Republican: Put Mexican Drug Cartels on State Dept’s List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
(CNSNews.com) – Such a designation would put the drug cartels on the same list as al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hezbollah and make them subject to the same sanctions imposed on those radical groups. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has introduced a bill that would add Mexican cartels to the list of FTOs for their “acts of terrorism.”