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 Editorials | Opinions | May 2008 
They Fight Our War
 The Arizona Republic
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 |  | The United States should help Calderón because our demand for an illegal product created the monster he is fighting and because that monster will not remain contained in Mexico. |  | | | |
The single most effective thing the United States could do to help Mexico's emerging democracy prevail over drug cartels would be to legalize recreational drugs. We are not advocating that. Not now.
But it is important to understand the effect America's demand for drugs has on Mexico's bloody battle against drug cartels.
It is also important to consider that well-organized, well-funded cartels have the potential to undermine Mexico's experiment with democracy and that nation's attempt to undo the corruption that became endemic during the seven decades of single-party rule.
Like it or not, what happens in Mexico matters to the United States.
So it is also important to move across the emotional minefield surrounding both this international relationship and our domestic relationship with so-called recreational drugs. The United States needs to make rational decisions about both.
That includes an open and vigorous public debate. We need to discuss more frankly the deadly consequences for our Mexican neighbors when so many Americans casually buy and use street drugs. We need to debate anew the unintended consequences of drug prohibitions that do little to stop the smuggling of illicit substances into this country.
Let's face it: Our appetite for drugs is empowering criminal organizations in Latin America. And Mexico is fighting our war against illegal drugs.
The cost is astonishing.
More than 2,500 people were killed last year in Mexico as two major cartels fought for control of trafficking into the United States.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón has courageously taken on the cartels, dispatching 25,000 troops against them. In retaliation, the cartels murdered so many local police chiefs and officers that the deaths became commonplace. Now the cartels are going after high-level federal law-enforcement officials.
The U.S. State Department blames criminal syndicates and drug cartels for the murders of three high-level Mexican officials this month. What's more, the cartels reach extends both north and south of Mexico.
In testimony last week, Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told a House subcommittee that "drug trafficking, gang violence, crime and human smuggling, all linked to Central America, now directly afflict many areas of the United States, while arms and cash flows move south across our border and through Mexico to sustain these criminal organizations."
He called on to approve funding for the Merida Initiative, which would provide money and training to Mexico and Central America to combat these activities.
Merida is expensive. At $1.4 billion over three-years, some in say it is too expensive.
It is also getting mired in election-year politics. The AFL-CIO wants the Democratic to reject the measure unless it includes tough human-rights provisions.
Budgetary and human-rights considerations are important.
But there is a rising danger of not helping Mexico now.
Calderón's move against the cartels was risky and the backlash has been brutal. Mexicans have taken to the streets to protest the violence, which could force Calderón to retreat.
If he does, it would undermine Mexicans' confidence in their government and embolden the cartels, which are so brazen now that they post ads offering higher pay and benefits to those who abandon law enforcement and join their criminal enterprises.
The United States should help Calderón because our demand for an illegal product created the monster he is fighting and because that monster will not remain contained in Mexico. |
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