Clinton Visits Mexico As Cartel Crackdown Begins

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 25, 2009; 9:30 AM

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin a trip to Mexico today aimed at strengthening relations with America's southern neighbor at a moment when it is facing an explosion of drug violence that is challenging the government's control over its territory.

Clinton is the first of three Cabinet officials scheduled to travel to Mexico ahead of a visit by President Obama on April 16-17. She set out a day after the Obama administration announced it was rushing hundreds of law enforcement agents and extra equipment to the border to curb the flow of American guns and drug proceeds to Mexican traffickers.

Mexican authorities, who have long complained about a lack of U.S. action on the cross-border drug trade, cheered the announcement. Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa called it "consistent with the bilateral cooperation in the fight against organized crime." But the Mexican government clearly is hoping for more.


More than 8,000 people have been slain in drug-related attacks in Mexico since January 2008, the result of rivalries between trafficking gangs and a backlash against President Felipe Calderón's decision to use the military to combat narcotraffickers. The bloodshed has alarmed U.S. border states, which fear the violence could spread.

Obama barely mentioned Mexico during the presidential campaign, but his team began to focus on the perilous situation during the transition and has been scrambling to put together a broader strategy, officials said.

Clinton's two-day visit to Mexico City and the northern city of Monterrey will focus on anti-drug cooperation, but she will also take in subjects such as trade, energy and the upcoming summit of the G-20 nations, which the leaders of the both countries will attend.

Among the Mexican government's concerns are a recent cutoff by the U.S. Congress of a program that allowed some Mexican trucks to travel into the United States. Lawmakers said they were addressing safety issues, but Mexican officials called the action a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They have slapped tariffs on dozens of U.S. products in response.

A senior State Department official said Clinton's trip will highlight the broad range of issues on which the neighbors interact. Mexico is the United States' third-largest trading partner and maintains close contacts with U.S. officials in areas ranging from agriculture to immigration.

"The idea of this trip is to not allow Mexico to be pigeonholed by one or two issues," the official said Tuesday, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. That approach will undoubtedly please Mexican authorities, who have angrily rejected suggestions by U.S. military officials that the country could increasingly become ungovernable or even turn into a "failed state."

Still, the drug violence is expected to be high on the agenda. Last year, the U.S. government agreed to provide Mexico with as much as $1.4 billion worth of training and equipment over three years for the anti-drug fight through a program called the Merida Initiative. But Mexicans have complained of delays in getting the gear and have expressed dismay that Congress has approved only $700 million of the $950 million requested so far by the White House.

Asked whether more money might be provided through that initiative, the State Department official said: "The real issue right now isn't new money. I think the real issue is implementation and moving equipment and training as fast as we can."

In his news conference on Tuesday night, Obama vowed to "monitor the situation" in Mexico. "If the steps that we have taken do not get the job done, then we will do more," he said.

In what analysts called a shift from past administrations, Obama also accepted U.S. responsibility for some of the drug problem in Mexico.

"We need to do more to make sure that illegal guns and cash aren't flowing back to these cartels. That's part of what is financing their operations. That's part of what is arming them," he said.


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