guest: andrew rudman on how we deal with drug dealers in this country. guest: i think john makes an important point, sometimes, we talk about the drug trade as if the drugs come through the border, are brought by mexican cartel to the border. we forget about, how does drugs get from matamoros, wherever they cross, how do they get to washington, oklahoma, any other state. i think whether we should execute them, that is a legal question or a legislative question. you raise an important point, which is to remember the -- there is trafficking in this country, as well. it is not entirely a problem in mexico. host: on how mexico treats its drug dealers. as the mexican government outdone by the cartels? guest: the mexican government is indeed outgunned by the cartels. there have been stories, you can find them on the internet of some of the cartels showing off their weaponry. there was a fairly infamous case where the mexican government attempted to arrest a senior drug cartel leader, the son of guzman, the cartels mass or says and eventually surrounded the mil

andrew rudman, thank you very much life here in the states. andrew. ur time. iran's supreme leader has called a wave of suspected poisonings of schoolgirls in recent months an "unforgivable crime" in a rare departure from blaming the west orforeign influences. more than a thousand girls at dozens of schools across the country have been subjected to apparent gas attacks since november. there's widespread suspicion that the girls are being targetted forjoining the protests for women's rights which have swept iran. bbc persian�*s parham ghobadi reports. the shocking images of iranian schoolgirls gasping for breath after possible gas attacks. the poisoned students are bussed away in ambulances to packed hospitals. concerned parents run to save their children. some are barred from entering the school. protests have been held in front of the education ministry, but they were beaten and arrested. many students say they were not allowed to leave school despite the smell of gas. translation: they closed the school doors, saying i it was a sweet smell and nothin

host: you can follow andrew rudman on twitter @andrewrudman.of the mexico institute at the wilson center. next, 20 minutes before the house comes in for the day. we will take you there when they do. until then, it is open form. any public policy, political issue you want to talk about. phone lines are yours. phone lines are on the screen. start calling now. we will get to your calls when we get back. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. important congressional hearings and other public affairs events throughout the day and weekdays at five a clock p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern. catch washington today for a fast paced report of the stories of today, listen to c-span anytime. tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span. powered by cable. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand o

andrew rudman. let's get some of the day's other news. recep tayyip erdogan, will face a single opponent in may's presidential election after opposition parties agreed on a joint candidate. kemal kilicdaroglu leads the secular republican people's party. polls are suggesting a tight race. a court in belarus has sentenced an exiled opposition leader, sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, to 15 years injail in her absence. ms tsikhanouskaya fled belarus in 2020, having stood against the country's authoritarian leader, alexander lukashenko, in presidential elections that she's widely thought to have won. france is preparing for widespread strikes on tuesday as workers unions step up their fight against president macron's plans to move the age of retirement to 64. most trains will be brought to a halt and schools will close. air traffic and power generation will also be affected. it's the sixth day of nationwide industrial action since mid—january. a former beauty queen and her partner who fled spain after stealing 45 bottles of fine wine have both been j

earlier, i spoke to andrew rudman, the director of the mexico institute at us think tank, the wilsoned him if the migrants had been heading to the united states. i think it is certainly safe to assume that they were coming north to the united states, that's the normal pattern to be coming from central and even south america and heading through mexico into the united states. just how dangerous is that specific journey that they were on, as we understand it, a route that's usually taken? it's incredibly dangerous and you have to remember these are people who are often walking on foot or travelling in really crowded conditions, they have often paid smugglers large sums of money, to move, sometimes alone, sometimes with theirfamilies, and then in pretty difficult conditions, in fact, a lot of times stories you hear are not that they weren't found alive but they were deceased when the truck was found, that happened outside san antonio here in the states a few months ago. just how successful are migrants at getting into the united states if indeed that is the destination they were heading

host: andrew rudman joins us, the director of the