March 29, 2009
Mexico Border Drug-related Trap
While Americans have been absorbed with the “War Against Terrorism” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war against narcotics and related crimes rage almost unnoticed on our border with Mexico.
According to Mexican statistics, more than 6,200 people there were murdered in drug-related violence last year. This was double the 2007 figure. About 200 of those victims were beheaded.
This is not good for attracting American tourists – a major source of revenue.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon -- upon his election two years ago -- declared “all-out war” against narcotic criminals and made it the focus of his administration.
Mr. Calderon called on United States President Barack Obama to contribute tens of billions of dollars in the scourge of drugs and related crimes on both sides of their border.
CHECK LIST
In response, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Thursday led a delegation of three Congressmen to visit Calderon and draw up a “check list” of defenses against Mexican criminals engaging in a bloody turf war. Each gang wants exclusive rights to sell cocaine on both sides of the border.
Secretary Clinton agreed that the United States has a shared responsibility for Mexico’s drug-related violence.
She declared:
“More than 90 percent of the weapons seized in Mexican drug-related violence are coming from the United States. We must step up our efforts to crack down on the flow of guns and money that are smuggled from our country into Mexico.”
MERIDA INITIATIVE
U.S. Congressman Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Committee On Intelligence, told President Calderon that Congress is committed to increasing funding in the three-year Merida Initiative. It was approved under the Bush W. administration.
That measure promises Mexico $1.4 billion in training and equipment to support its anti-crime and drug efforts. So far, Mexico has received $700 million of that aid.
Calderon also asked the American lawmakers to reinstate a ban on the sale of assault weapons – which often end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels -- and to speed up aid under the Merida Initiative.
Customs personnel and mobile X-ray scanners will be sent to border checkpoints to increase inspection of vehicles entering the U.S.
More money, three Black Hawk military helicopters and night vision goggles -- will be given to 450 local law enforcement Americans who police border communities and high-traffic corridors.
Better monitoring of Mexico’s financial system will help stop the transfer, and laundering, of billion of dollars in drug profits – thus cutting the financial life lines supporting the drug cartels.
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
The U.S. acknowledges its role in the effort to stem the flow of narcotics. Ninety percent of the firearms confiscated in drug-related violence come from north of the Mexican border.
Mexican cartels are said to operate in at least 230 U.S. cities. Calderon is quoted as telling the Financial Times of London, England, that American aid -- and policing of the 2,000-mile border with the United States – was insufficient in stemming drug smuggling.
When pressed to estimate the cost of building and guarding the border, Calderon admitted: “Between $10 billion and $35 billion – the truth is that nobody knows.”
The U.S. Congress this month trimmed the amount of money for narcotic prevention along the Mexican border this fiscal year to $300 million.
This compares to $400 million last year.
Congress has pledged $1.4 billion to Mexico and Central America during the next three years for defense against illicit drugs.
GRAND DAD’S WORD
Sadly, and ominously, the smuggling of psychoactive drugs north of the Mexican-United States border – and west from the poppy fields of Afghanistan -- are problems of great concern.
A Third World War is primed and ready for a spark to set it off. Hopheads with guns for sale and use -- and fervor to kill non-believers -- is a deadly combination too dangerous to tolerate.
Today it is law-abiding, hard working, native-born folks -- and poor hard-working Mexicans -- in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California -- who will suffer most from these problems.
One foolish bombing by a quartet of hop-heads (akin to 9.11.01) -- or a greedy drug dealer -- and a Third World War could engulf us once-and-for-all.
As my Grand-dad used to say: “Good fences make good neighbors.”
By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist
