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LISA MULLINS: A recent US government assessment caused a lot of concern in Mexico. It said drug related violence put the country at risk of a sudden collapse. Mexican officials have rejected that assessment. They say their strategy of deploying the army against drug traffickers is working, and they want the United States to help more. But no Mexican official has been as blunt in his comments about the US as President Felipe Calderon was yesterday. Here's more from The World's Lorne Matalon.

LORNE MATALON: President Calderon has had a busy week. So far it's included a major cabinet shake-up, and getting reports of a series of Army Special Forces raids on suspected drug cartel hideouts. But what really made news was Calderon's interview with Agence France Press. He used unusually forceful language to lay some of the blame for Mexico's drug trafficking problems squarely at the feet of the United States. Calderon told AFP the main problem for Mexico is having the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs right next door. He added that drug trafficking is fueled by corruption on both sides of the border. Pointing to Mexican officials and police under arrest for collaboration with the drug cartels, Calderon said he wanted to know how many American officials had been prosecuted on drug trafficking charges. And he demanded that the US do more to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico. The last point is one many Mexicans are making these days.

SERGIO JIMENEZ: The government of Mexico is in a really in a very bad situation.

MATALON: Sergio Jimenez covers Mexico's fight against the drug cartels for the respected daily, El Universal.

JIMENEZ: We hope we can see some decision first of all in the United States with the guns, and after that we can make some things here in Mexico.

MATALON: Make some improvements here?

JIMENEZ: Yeah. That's right.

MATALON: Calderon's comments may have surprised American officials in Washington, given that the Obama administration has taken steps recently to cooperate with Mexico in fighting the cartels and slowing the flow of weapons. A source at the US Embassy here declined to comment specifically on Calderon's comments, but deferred to last week's arrests of hundreds of Mexican cartel members or associates in a joint US-Mexican operation. Later this week, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visits Mexico. Yet another sign the US views helping Mexico in its fight against the drug cartels as a priority. For The World, I'm Lorne Matalon, in Mexico City.

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