Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jan 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Denise Dresser, Writing From Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Obama
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Merida+Initiative
Bookmark: Mexico Under Siege (Series) http://mapinc.org/find?255

Mexico Under Siege

REALITY CHECK FOR U.S.-MEXICO RELATIONS

Obama May Find Mexico and Its Drug War a Compelling Foreign Policy Issue.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe 
Calderon engaged in a time-honored tradition: At the outset of a new 
U.S. administration, the American president meets the Mexican head of 
state before all others. Obama and Calderon got the chance to look 
into each other's eyes and speak about the importance of U.S.-Mexico 
relations -- the diplomatic equivalent of new neighbors meeting over 
a cup of tea.

Now it's time to move beyond etiquette and face hard facts. Mexico is 
becoming a lawless country. More people died here in drug-related 
violence last year than were killed in Iraq. The government has been 
infiltrated by the mafias and drug cartels that it has vowed to combat.

Although many believe that Obama's greatest foreign policy challenges 
lie in Afghanistan or Iran or the Middle East, they may in fact be 
found south of the border. Mexico may not be a failed state yet, but 
it desperately needs to wage a more effective war against organized 
crime, and it must have the right kind of American help and 
incentives to succeed.

Over the last decade, the surge in drug trafficking and Calderon's 
failed efforts to contain it have been symptomatic of what doesn't 
work in Mexico's dysfunctional democracy. In 2007, violence related 
to the drug trade resulted in more than 2,000 murders in Mexico, and 
in 2008, the toll was more than 5,000. Only a few months ago, 
top-level officials in the Public Security Ministry were arrested and 
charged with protecting members of Mexico's main drug cartels.

Calderon's promises to "clean up the house" have not gone far enough. 
As George Orwell wrote, "People denounce the war while preserving the 
type of society that makes it inevitable."

The Mexican president, who is seeking a stronger "strategic" 
relationship with the United States, surely told Obama on Monday that 
the heightened level of violence was a result of government 
efficiency in combating drug cartels. In that view, the rise in 
street "executions" is evidence of a firm hand, not an ineffectual one.

But Calderon's self-congratulatory stance masks a president who 
insists on closing his eyes in the face of deep-rooted problems and 
complex challenges.

The current strategy -- based largely on the increased militarization 
of Mexico -- isn't doing enough to end government corruption. Drug 
traffickers finance politicians, and politicians protect drug 
traffickers. Judges take bribes. Unregulated financial institutions 
make it easy to launder money. A weak, ill-trained, underpaid police 
force is easily infiltrated. And most important, Mexico's economic 
structure thwarts growth and social mobility, forcing Mexicans to 
either cross the border for a better life or to join the narco-culture.

Obama, for his part, needs to acknowledge the negative role the U.S. 
has played by largely ignoring Mexico's -- and his own country's -- 
failures in fighting the drug trade.

President Bush's year-old Merida Initiative, through which the United 
States provides Mexico with about $400 million a year to help fight 
drug trafficking, has been a necessary but insufficient step. Mexican 
drug traffickers buy arms that U.S. traders sell. They provide 
cocaine that U.S. users demand, and they have set up distribution 
networks across the U.S. because no one has stopped them from doing so.

Mexico is paying a very high price for American voracity, and Obama 
should, at the very least, acknowledge that a bilateral problem will 
require bilateral solutions.

More important, the U.S. must not merely send more money for more 
militarization in Mexico. It must demand accountability for the aid 
it offers and insist that, if Mexico wants a helping hand, it will 
have to aggressively clean up its own house and accept uncomfortable truths.

In order for Mexico to fight a successful war on drug trafficking, 
its leaders must construct a prosperous, inclusive, lawful country in 
which citizens aren't propelled into illicit activities in order to 
survive, and criminals aren't protected by those charged with 
stopping them. Only then would Calderon have the legitimacy to 
request the deeper kind of relationship he wants from the Obama 
administration and the United States, and only then should the 
incoming U.S. administration view such a relationship as a viable option.

Instead of the polite, traditional Mexico-United States 
meet-and-greet, Obama and Calderon must meet to change the facts on 
the ground in both nations. They could call it the audacity of moving 
beyond tea and sympathy.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake