It is well known by now that the Mexican government and ATF officials working in Mexico from 2009-2011, were left completely in the dark about Operation Fast and Furious, the lethal program run mainly out of the Obama Justice Department. As a quick refresher, under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, ATF deliberately placed 2500 high powered AK-47s and .50 caliber rifles into the hands of ruthless Mexican drug cartels in order to push an unpopular, anti-Second Amendment regulation agenda around Congress and behind the backs of the American people.
Yesterday, Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan was on Capitol Hill participating in a forum hosted by the New Democrat Network, a liberal think tank, and confirmed that not only was Mexico left in the dark about the operation but that they have opened their own investigation. The Los Angeles Times has more:
"Mexico was never apprised how the operation would be designed and implemented," Sarukhan told officials at a forum hosted by the New Democrat Network, or NDN, a center-left think tank and advocacy organization, and the New Policy Institute, one of its sister organizations.
"Regardless of whether this was or was not the intent or the design of Fast and Furious," Sarukhan said, "the thinking that you can let guns walk across the border and maintain operational control of those weapons is really an outstanding lack of understanding of how these criminal organizations are operating on both sides of our common borders."
He added that the ill-conceived operation had "poisoned the wellsprings" of public opinion in Mexico, putting strains on the strides that had been achieved between the United States and Mexico in combating illegal gun trafficking.
Sarukhan's remarks come as contempt charges loom for Attorney General Eric Holder due to non-compliance with a Congressional subpoena.