| | |  Editorials | December 2009 
U.S. Needs to Help Mexico Stop the Drug Cartels
 San Francisco Chronicle
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December 22, 2009
Three years into his war with drug cartels, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has finally scored a major victory. Last week, his special forces killed top drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, a.k.a. "The Boss of Bosses." With Leyva's defeat, Calderon punched a hole in one of Mexico's biggest cartels.
But while Calderon won an important battle, he's still in danger of losing the war.
Leyva's death will throw his cartel into chaos, and the ensuing battle for power among his deputies could be brutal, drawing in civilians and the police.
There's also a good chance that the death may just strengthen Mexico's five other major cartels as they move in to take over Leyva's market share. Those battles, too, could prove to be as devastating as the havoc Leyva unleashed on his fellow Mexicans.
Meanwhile, Calderon is using a conventional strategy to win an unconventional war, and it's failing. Heavily armed though they may be, the cartels' greatest weapon is simple human greed. Over the past three years, they've managed to infiltrate every aspect of Mexican society.
Officials routinely arrest cartel associates who moonlight as beauty queens, Grammy award winners, and local police chiefs. It's telling that Leyva's defeat came at the hands of the Mexican navy. Both Mexico's far-larger army and its police force are riddled with turncoats and cartel agents. If Calderon can't trust his own forces, how can he hope to win this long, painful war of attrition?
The cartels continue to expand their reach into the United States, their biggest market. Federal officials have noticed that the cartels have stepped up their efforts to corrupt the border police, many of whom grew up in border towns and know people in both countries. Federal officials claim that they don't have the money to issue polygraph screenings for more than a small fraction of their border police recruits. The result is more smuggled drugs - and more violence - in both countries. Bodies continue to pop up on both sides of the border with frightening regularity.
There are many ways the United States could assist Calderon - and protect U.S. citizens, too. Officials should start with those polygraph screenings - we shouldn't hire anyone who we can't afford to test. Stopping the flow of guns and weapons from the United States into the cartels' hands should be another priority. The cartels have proven their ruthlessness, and they're not afraid to bring their battles here. |
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