| | |  Editorials | March 2009 
Southern Strategy Needed to Keep Mexico Secure
 Alberto R. Gonzales - Chron.com
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| | Former attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales | |
Last week, a number of senior U.S. Government officials traveled to Mexico to offer additional help confronting one of the most serious threats to the national security of the United States — the soaring level of violence in Mexico and along our southern border. The Bush Administration worked hard to provide the government of Mexico with law enforcement assets, training, and intelligence. The recent level of violence by the drug cartels is evidence additional steps were necessary. During the week, the Obama administration announced a major southwest border security initiative.
The root causes of the violence are systemic. While Mexican President Felipe Calderon has shown courage in confronting the drug cartels, significant progress in Mexico is not likely in the near future without fundamental institutional reforms.
For example, Mexican justice relies primarily on a system of paper trials when prosecuting significant drug trafficking organizations. The system is slow and secretive. Thus, it is rife with manipulation and corruption. Rule of law changes, such as a shift to an open accusatorial system of oral trials, would facilitate quicker prosecutions.
Likewise, the Mexican correctional system needs additional security protocols to stop imprisoned drug lords from operating their organizations from within prison walls and ordering the assassination of law enforcement officials. And, until recently, the Mexican government has been unwilling to extradite major drug traffickers to the United States who may be eligible for life imprisonment or the death penalty. Yes, Calderon has already recommended numerous broad institutional reforms; however, such reforms are inherently slow and will be difficult to achieve.
I am pleased that the U.S. will continue to provide Mexico with investigators and prosecutors from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to work with their Mexican counterparts. The Mexican government needs vastly greater crime database capability and management. The United States should try to accelerate the funding for, or direct delivery of, assets such as helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, patrol boats, and surveillance and communications detection equipment.
The United States should also continue to find ways to share intelligence more effectively with vetted units of the Mexican military and law enforcement community.
Finally, the Treasury Department should continue its work to follow the money, and seize the assets from illegal drug and gun transactions. While many of these steps reflect a continuation or enhancement of measures initiated under the Bush administration, the Mexican government will appreciate the help and statements of public support.
Perhaps one of the most effective steps the United States could take would be to address the number of guns transferred illegally from the United States into Mexico. The announcement that the United States will place additional ATF agents and detection equipment on the border to stop illegal firearms transfers is helpful, but may not be enough. During my tenure as Attorney General, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) estimated that nearly 90 percent of the firearms recovered from crime scenes in Mexico originated in the United States.
Investigations by ATF found that a large number of the firearms used in the commission of offenses in Mexico were purchased by criminals at gun shows in the United States, primarily in our border states. There are over 4,000 gun shows annually in the United States and an estimated 25 percent of the sellers at those shows are unlicensed individuals that the law permits to sell firearms without conducting background checks. Because these events have hundreds or thousands of guns available for sale, gun shows are a market place for felons and other prohibited persons to buy firearms from unlicensed sellers without background checks.
Because of this “gun show loophole,” it is virtually impossible for ATF to identify large numbers of handgun purchases at border gun shows.
Two years ago, the ATF was already working in cooperation with our Mexican counterparts to expand information sharing, to increase the quantity, and to improve the quality of firearms trace data received from Mexico. ATF’s firearms tracing system, known as “eTrace,” allows law enforcement agencies to identify gun trafficking trends of criminal organizations and develop investigative leads to arrest firearms traffickers and people who knowingly purchase guns for prohibited persons. ATF has been working to deploy fully the eTrace technology to all 31 states in Mexico and at all nine U.S. consulates in Mexico, as well as a Spanish-language version of eTrace to other agencies in Mexico.
Meeting the challenges created by the gun show loophole will require the vigilant enforcement of all existing gun laws. If these efforts are insufficient, the Obama administration should consider asking Congress to close the loophole and require background checks for all firearms transfers at gun shows. However, legislation should not close down guns shows for private sellers.
Reducing the violence in Mexico and along our southern border will be difficult — but it is essential in a post Sept. 11 world. A shared problem requires a joint solution.
The measures announced yesterday and the additional recommendations discussed above will not end the violence in Mexico, but they will further secure our southern border and make safer Americans and our neighbors to the south.
Gonzales was attorney general of the United States. |
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