Thread: Obama mustn't neglect Mexico's drug war NAVARRETTE

Obama mustn't neglect Mexico's drug war

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.

SAN DIEGO — Many Americans see Mexico as a dysfunctional family in the neighborhood. With the start of a new year, and a new Congress, President Obama needs to persuade the American people to see Mexico in a different light — as one of the most explosive countries in the region capable of creating a major foreign policy crisis for the U.S. There's no better time to start than with Obama's upcoming State of the Union address.

Thanks to Mexico's narco nightmare, our backyard is on fire. According to figures recently released by Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, the number of deaths in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office four years ago has surpassed 30,000.


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You can chalk up a few of those killings to a notorious drug cartel hit man who has admitted to beheading his victims — even though he isn't old enough to shave. A few weeks ago, the Mexican army captured the pint-sized Edgar Jimenez Lugo, aka "El Ponchis." In a country where men are lucky to make $6 a day in honest wages, the 14-year-old was paid $200 a week by a cartel. El Ponchis has been what the Mexican news media are calling a "child assassin" since he was 11. And authorities say El Ponchis is one of ours, born in San Diego.

Cartels on the run?

Some say the chaos proves that Calderon has the cartels on the run. Recently, Mexican authorities announced that the once-feared La Familia drug cartel, which has long dominated the western state of Michoacan, has been "completely dismembered" and that its factions have been reduced to committing robberies to survive.

Just don't try telling the people of Mexico that the government is winning the war. Many are looking for an exit — or a truce. Several months ago, the staff of El Diario de Juarez, the largest newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, gave into their fear of becoming cannon fodder. So the newspaper published an editorial asking the drug cartels to "explain what you want from us, what we should try to publish or not publish."

Most Americans have a limited perspective on Mexico's crisis. They only worry about the potential for spillover violence. They want Mexico to stay in Mexico.

Too late. Mexico is already here.

According to U.S. officials, Mexican drug cartels operate in more than a dozen states. They're suspected of being involved in kidnappings, robberies and murders on U.S. soil. If Mexico spirals out of control and cartels continue to take over whole cities, as they did recently in Monterrey, the damage won't be limited to Mexico or to states along the border. It will be a full-blown international crisis that impacts the lives of all Americans.

It's time that the Obama administration stopped ignoring the fire, grabbed a hose and helped put out the flames. Our neighbors have had enough of those photo-ops where visiting U.S. officials offer lofty rhetoric about how Mexico and the U.S. are "partners" in this conflict. The Mexicans don't need a silent partner. They need an active collaborator who is motivated not by charity but by an honest recognition of its own self-interest.

On this side of the border, President Obama must:

•Deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, not to combat illegal immigration as George W. Bush did but to help secure the area and ward off drug violence.

•Reboot and refocus the stale war on drugs with a new emphasis on curbing Americans' consumption that includes instructing the Justice Department to push for stiffer penalties for casual users of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs.

•Reverse a dangerous and wrongheaded administration policy, recently detailed by The Washington Post, of not requiring gun dealers on the border to report bulk sales of high-powered semiautomatic rifles — the guns of choice for drug dealers.

•Start discussing the drug war in Mexico, with the American people, as a potential national security threat. What's going on in Mexico is not just limited to Mexico. Already, the Mexican drug cartels are spreading their operations and power into neighboring countries, such as Guatemala, Peru and Colombia.

How to help Mexico

With regard to Mexico, Obama should:

•Provide additional U.S. military advisers to train the Mexican army in counterinsurgency tactics and the taking down of drug lords.

•Ride herd on the $1.6 billion over three years that Congress provided to the Mexican government in the Merida Initiative but which has been slow to arrive, and make sure every dime gets to Mexico where it can be used to fight the cartels.

•Be prepared to hand over whatever other kind of support Calderon requires to quash the insurgency, including U.S. troops if necessary.

•Dole out some tough love to our neighbors by making the case to Mexican officials — whether they want to hear it or not — that their situation does indeed compare with Colombia 20 years ago but that they can learn valuable lessons from it.

U.S. leaders have been much too timid in dealing with this crisis. That has to stop. After all, Americans are subsidizing this war. We buy the drugs that keep the cartels in business, and we provide the guns that keep the drug traffickers armed to the teeth. This is our baby, and it's time we owned up to it.

Ruben Navarrette Jr., a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors, is a syndicated columnist and a commentator for National Public Radio.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... 9_ST_N.htm

Ruben wants the borders secured to drug traffic yet open to illegal immigrants. Can't have it both ways.

Most Americans have a limited perspective on Mexico's crisis. They only worry about the potential for spillover violence. They want Mexico to stay in Mexico.

Too late. Mexico is already here.

Thanks to open borders advocates like you.

On this side of the border, President Obama must:

•Deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, not to combat illegal immigration as George W. Bush did but to help secure the area and ward off drug violence.

Of course not.

make sure every dime gets to Mexico where it can be used to fight the cartels.

Unless, of course, the corrupt Mexican government keeps the money for itself.

Mexico is neither poor nor a friend of the U.S. It's time our legislators realized that.

1. NO more money to mexico! The money finds itself in corrupt officials pockets.

2. Militarize the border NOW.

3. Deport mexican nationals here illegally, the mexican army needs them.

Originally Posted by miguelina

3. Deport mexican nationals here illegally, the mexican army needs them.

Love that

There are more billionaires per capita in Mexico than there are in the United States. Right now those folks are dumping their poor on us. It's time that they started taking care of their own people.

Originally Posted by vistalad

Originally Posted by miguelina

3. Deport mexican nationals here illegally, the mexican army needs them.

Love that;-)

There are more billionaires per capita in Mexico than there are in the United States. Right now those folks are dumping their poor on us. It's time that they started taking care of their own people.

Population 2010
U. S.-- 311,915,000
Mexico 112,322,757
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... population

Billionaires in:
Nation-------- Number of billionaires
United States 403
Canada-------- 24
Mexico---------- 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... llionaires

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Population 2010
U. S.-- 311,915,000
Mexico 112,322,757
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... population

Billionaires in:
Nation-------- Number of billionaires
United States 403
Canada-------- 24
Mexico---------- 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... llionaires

Thanks for that headsup. I don't recall the source for my post, but at the time I thought that the source was credible.

Originally Posted by vistalad

Originally Posted by miguelina

3. Deport mexican nationals here illegally, the mexican army needs them.

Love that

There are more billionaires per capita in Mexico than there are in the United States. Right now those folks are dumping their poor on us. It's time that they started taking care of their own people.

They are dumping their poor and buying up property and Latino govt funded crybaby wining LaRaza groups as well here.

Some may have a crongressman or twoin their pocket.

What a jerkoff.