U.S. is No Help to Mexico in Combating Drug Mafias
"Hillary Clinton's acknowledgment of her government's responsibility for the smuggling of guns and her country's insatiable demand for illegal drugs was a praiseworthy but insufficient gesture. ... Obama has let the matter stagnate and gives the impression that his only option is to back President Calderon's plan, despite its proven ineffectiveness."
Secretary of State Clinton asks: 'Who's the head here?' [Who's in charge, here?] - In reference to the police and civilians who have been beheaded by Mexican drug cartels in recent days.
As far as can be seen, the
meeting held yesterday between the security cabinets of Mexico and the United
States, which generated such high expectations due to the seniority of
the visiting delegation, as well as the fact that it occurred just days after
the assassination of three U.S. Consulate employees in Ciudad Juarez, concluded
without confirming fears of a new escalation of U.S. intervention. But the meeting with the U.S. group, comprised of Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, Interior Secretary Janet Napolitano, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, also ended without producing credible
solutions to the grave public security crisis engulfing our country.
According to Foreign Minister
Patricia Espinoza, the conclave agreed to initiate a “new stage” of the Mérida Initiative,
which will include a strategy to dismantle criminal organizations in both
countries, the development of a “secure border,” and the adoption of measures
of “mutual support, to strengthen security institutions in Mexico and the
United States.” For her part, Hillary Clinton's acknowledgment of her government's
share of responsibility for the smuggling of guns into Mexico and her nation's
insatiable demand for illegal drugs was indeed a praiseworthy gesture, but
insufficient; the U.S. authorities will have to initiate serious and committed
actions against drug trafficking on their own territory - where most drugs
originating in Latin America continue to reach the hands of consumers, and
against the undisguised flow of illicit money into their country's financial
system.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The lack of a clear strategy
on the part of Barack Obama's Administration appears to be behind the
difficulty in conceiving and implementing effective measures against drug
trafficking. Focused on domestic issues and the war in Afghanistan, the White
House occupant has let the matter stagnate and gives the impression that his
only option is to back President Calderon's plan. This, in spite of the fact
that the plan has been counterproductive in combating drug trafficking and
violence and is demonstrably ineffective.
In such circumstances, in terms
of fight against the organized crime, Mexican authorities shouldn't expect more
from the United Statesiens [Americans]. Given the ineffectiveness of the
current security policy, it would be desirable for the authorities instead to
promote a national debate on the subject, in order to formulate a security
strategy based on consensus. They should show the political will to listen to
the views of academics, economists, experts on public health and safety, as
well as to organizations created by groups who have been harmed by the blood
bath, to families of the innocent victims and to representatives of communities
broken by the violence. The federal government will not obtain public support
if it doesn't abandon the obstinacy it has shown toward the demands and claims
of the population.
That support will not be
achieved if episodes continue to happen like the assassinations over the
weekend of two Monterrey Technical School students - with authorities up to now
unable to offer a convincing explanation of the facts, or like the killing of
the presumed dealer José Humberto Márquez Compeán, who, after being detained in
Santa Catalina, Nuevo León, was found dead in an empty lot with signs of
torture. Events like these presage new failures in fighting crime. Until such
habits are corrected, there will be no national policy or bilateral agreement that
will succeed in containing the bloodbath in our country.
