Mexico, Uruguay end spat over 'failed state' dig

Mexico and Uruguay declared today an end to a brief diplomatic spat over the Uruguayan president's description of Mexico as a "kind of failed state."
Mexico's government protested the remarks by Uruguayan President Jose Mujica over the weekend and said it would summon the South American country's ambassador for an explanation.
But Mujica himself issued a statement late yesterday to take back his words, which he had made to Foreign Affairs magazine in reference to the disappearance, and presumed massacre, of 43 college students by a police-backed drug gang in southern Mexico.
The foreign ministers of both countries said today the matter was resolved.

"It's absolutely settled," Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade said during a trip to Chile, noting that Mujica had clarified his remarks. "The dialogue with Uruguay is a brotherly dialogue."
Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro told AFP that the "episode has been overcome.