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A P P H O T O / B E R N A R D O D E N I Z
THEWORLDTODAY.ORG MARCH 2011
tHERE HAVE BEEN PROMISES TO WORK
together against the drug traffickers, triggered
by fears in Washington that the
violence will spill over into United States (US)
territory, and an acknowledgement by both
countries that they share responsibility for the
problem. Thebattle against thedrug gangs in Mexico has cometo dominate the bilateral relationship.
InDecember 2006,Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who
had just been inaugurated after a tightly contested presidential
election, launched a head-on crack down on the drugtraffickers
who use Mexico to get illegal narcotics into the US. More than
four years on, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in drug-
related violence and an increasing number of Mexican states -
many of them along the border with the US - have
beenengulfed in the conflict. Meanwhile, there is little evidence
that the flow of drugs into America has slowed or that thecartels in Mexico are weakening. With 15,273 people killed in
2010 alone - the bloodiest year of the offensive -many sectors of
Mexican society are calling for a change in the government’s
strategy.
Washington, however, has firmly supported Calderon’s
policies, celebrating successes like the capture or killing of
several high profile drug barons, and providing close
cooperation in the shape of financial aid, intelligence sharing
and provision of surveillance equipment.US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton used a recent visit to Mexico - the third in two
years- to provide yet another ringing endorsement. Describing
herself as a “fan” of President Calderon, she said that thereis “no
alternative” to the military confrontation against thetraffickers.
TURBULENCEWashington may applaud the strategy, but there have been
signs recently that the US is concerned at the lack of tangible
results. Clinton herself, speaking at a think tank in Washington
last September, said that drug cartels in Mexico are showing
more and more signs of becoming “an insurgency” and that
Mexico is increasingly looking like the drug-ravaged Colombia
of the 1980s. The comparison irked the Mexican government,
which categorically denied Clinton’s statement, and President
Barack Obama himself came out to play down the remarks
made by his Secretary of State.
In February, the Under Secretary of the Army, Joseph
Westphal, raised similar concerns during a session at the
University of Utah.When asked about the areas of concern for
US foreign policy, hereferred to“a form of insurgency in Mexico
with the drugs cartels that’s right on our border,” and added,
“this is about, potentially, a takeover of government by
individuals who are corrupt.” Again the outrage from Mexican
officials forced Westphalto issue a statement retractingwhat he
called his “inaccurate” comments.
Probably the harshest words by US officials regarding thesecurity situation in Mexico emerged in documents that were
never meant to be read by the general public. The diplomatic
cables from the US embassy in Mexico City, released by
WikiLeaks,reflected increasing dismay among US officials over
Mexico’s lack of progress in its combat against drug trafficking
organisations.Some of the wires harshly criticised specific parts
of the effort.The Mexican army was describedas “slow and risk
averse”, and cooperation between Mexico’s security agencieswas
lambasted, with institutions like the Army, Navy and Federal
Police, as one of the wires said, “often locked in a zero-sum
competition in which oneagency’ssuccess is viewed as another’s
failure, information is closely guarded and joint operations areall but unheard of.”
The cables released, however, did include praise for Mexico’s
tough approach to the criminal groups, and they urged for
further bilateral cooperation. Through the Merida Initiative,
A state policemanstands next to aburnt-out bus onthe outskirts of Guadalajara,
Mexico.
Down
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HEWORLDTODAY.ORG MARCH 2011
Mexico already has received millions of dollars
from Washington in equipment, training, and joint work in
special operations. Although the financial aid has not been
delivered at the pace that many Mexicans hoped for when the
initiative was first launched in 2007, US support is believed to
have been crucial, for example, in captures of drug barons likeArturo Beltran Leyva in December 2009.
Few think thiswillchangeafter, in mid-February of this year,
two agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency assigned in Mexico City were shot by unknown
assailantsas they were driving from the Mexican capital to the
northern city of Monterrey. One of the agents, Jaime Zapata,
was killed, and the other was injured.It may take some time to
know whether that attack has any link with organised crime;
both countries quickly promised to cooperate to bring the
perpetrators to justice. This presented a stark difference from
the 1985 killing on Mexican soil of Enrique Camarena, a US
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) official, at the hands of drug
cartel members. That murder and the investigations thatfollowed - in which Mexican officials were accused by the US of
protecting the killers - caused deep strains between both
governments, bringing the bilateral relationship to a historic
low.
SHARED PROBLEM, SHARED SOLUTION?
Under the Obama administration, Mexico has achieved an
important discursive milestone: US officials now openly admit
to a‘shared responsibility’ relating to the drug traffickers.As the
world’s largest consumer ofillegal narcotics, the US’s seemingly
insatiable demand is acknowledged asan importantpart of the
problem.There is also the issue of weapons. It is now widely accepted
that themajority of thefirearms used by thecartels are bought in
the US. The criminals take advantage of the liberal gun
ownership laws there and then smuggle their purchases
JULIAN MIGLIERINI
is BBC Correspondent
for Mexico and
Central America.
back into Mexico. Since 2006, Mexico has confiscated almost
100,000 weapons from the cartels - and, according to a 2009
report by the US Government Accountability Office, more than
ninety percent of firearms seized in Mexico between 2006 and
2009 came from the US. This is why President Calderon has
pushed for tougher gun control laws in the US, suchasreinstating the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004
and was never renewed by American authorities.
With presidential elections due in both countries in 2012,
and the gloomy forecasts of an increase in the violence, the
Mexican drug traffickers are likely to be on both electoral
agendas. Trying to ensure victory for his centre-right National
Action Party, Calderon will most probably focus on the
achievements of what is set to
become the main legacy of his sixyear
administration:19 of 37 drug barons
captured or killed so far; more than
ten billion dollars worth of narcotics
confiscated from the cartels; and
some dents in the financial strength
of the cartels, whose business
amounts to an estimated forty billion
dollars everyyear.
But even if both countries can
point to some successes to offset the
high death toll, the continuing
violence, the inexhaustible demand
and supplyof drugsand the stream of
replacement Mexican drug lords, the
US and the region as a whole face a
profound challenge. While the
Andean nations continue to supply
most of the narcotics and
asthecriminal groups feel the heat of
the Mexican government’s offensive, they simply move their
operations elsewhere. While the Caribbean continues to battle
similar problems, there are strong indications that the cartels
are using several countries inCentral America as a new base for
their operations. Weaker states, laxer security enforcement
and frailinstitutions in Guatemala, El Salvador andHonduras,
combined with existing widespread corruption, providethe traffickers with the ideal setting for their illegal
business. Washington is well aware and on his
forthcoming visit to Latin America, President Obama will skip
Mexico and head directly to Central America’s smallest nation -
El Salvador, a country already grappling with one of the highest
homicide rates in the world. For many, this is yet another
indication that the ‘drugs war’ being fought in Latin
America is not going to be wonanytime soon.
AP
PHOTO/DARIO
LOPEZ-M
ILLS)