*** MEDIA ADVISORY***
CBS
NEWS EXCLUSIVE: PETER GREENBERG INTERVIEWS MEXICAN PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON –
INCLUDES INSIDE LOOK OF CALDERON’S SECRET, UNDERGROUND BUNKER
BROADCASTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12,
ON
THE CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC
The CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC will broadcast an
exclusive interview with Mexican President on Friday, November 12 (6:30 p.m.,
ET) on the CBS Television Network. CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg spent
time with Calderon in Mexico, including the first-ever look of his top-secret,
$100 million underground bunker and a sit-down interview with the President at
Los Pinos, his official residence.
Greenberg was given exclusive access to Calderon, who shared with CBS News
examples of the more than 90,000 weapons his government has confiscated in the
last four years. The President answered Greenberg’s questions about the
escalating violence of Mexico’s drug war, especially now: 2010 is Mexico’s
bloodiest on record, with more than 10,000 murders so far this year, a 45%
increase during the past year. Remarkably, despite U.S. State Department travel
warnings, tourism in Mexico is up 20%, including 5 million Americans.
Following is an excerpt of tonight’s interview. MANDATORY CREDIT: THE CBS EVENING NEWS
WITH KATIE COURIC.
On the cost of defeating the drug cartels:
Peter Greenberg: Every day there are news reports of killings,
of massacres, of bodies found. More than 28,000 people killed. That’s a
staggering number, isn’t it?
President Felipe Calderon: We have a serious problem. Yes.
However, we are facing the problem, and we are fixing that. It is going to take
us money, it is going to take us time, and unfortunately, it is going to take
human lives.
On the relationship between Mexico and the United States:
Calderon: We have a neighbor who is the largest consumer of
drugs in the world, and the problem is everyone wants to sell him drugs through
my window or through my door, and that is the beginning of the problem of
violence in Mexico. So, the United States needs to reduce the consumption of
drugs one way or another.
Calderon: The United States is the largest provider of weapons
to the criminals in Mexico. I’m talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15s,
machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades, almost 10 million bullets, which is
amazing figures.
# # #
Press Contact:
Kevin Tedesco 212-975-2329
kev@cbsnews.com
UPDATED 11/15/2010:
You can now view this interview online right here on PeterGreenberg.com,
including parts of the extended interview that weren’t broadcast on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric:
