Mexico and US Lack Clear Strategy for Combating Drug Trafficking, Experts Say Ciro Perez Silva - La Jornada
go to original February 8, 2013

The violence in Mexico resulting from drug trafficking and the clear choice that legalization of marijuana in the states of Washington and Colorado presents - even in the face of the prohibition against the use of drugs in the United States - shows that neither nation has a clear path for confronting a problem that affects bilateral relations.

This is the position stated by Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue, a center of  policy analysis, communication and exchange on issues of continental interest, who yesterday presented a report on the possibilities of promoting a more ambitious agenda in bilateral relations.

"Conditions for promoting changes in both countries exist, but so far [they exist] only in speeches," he explained.

He added that each country must demonstrate in their deeds the will to push for changes that have long occupied the top tier on the bilateral agenda.

In turn, Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and a member of the Committee on Inter-American Dialogue, agreed that although there are conditions for promoting immigration reform and gun control in the United States and energy and fiscal reform in Mexico, eventual legal changes in these areas "are not going to be either easy or quick, neither are they going to be total; each issue faces a number of obstacles that will have to be faced by presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto. The only thing that is clear is that to achieve some level of success, neither should the Americans aim to influence negotiations in the Congress of Mexico nor [should] the Mexicans [aim to influence] negotiations in the U.S. Congress."

Davidow recalled that twelve years ago, at the start of the administrations of Vicente Fox and George W. Bush, there was the same optimism to carry out the reforms themselves, "but for various reasons" they did not occur, so he called for caution regarding expectations.

Former foreign minister Rosario Green, who with former President Ernesto Zedillo and other specialists participated in preparing this report, pointed out that the report did not address with necessary depth the issue of violence and gangs of organized crime in both countries. Therefore, she raised two questions:

Why is it that the Americans are heavy drug users? and
Why don't drug trafficking and arms sales in the United States present the same levels of violence as in Mexico?

Alejandro Hope, a specialist on the issue and Director General of Security at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, responded that violence is not linked to drug trafficking, as is demonstrated that transit countries for the European Community, such as Turkey, have a rate of only three drug-linked deaths per 100,000 inhabitants: "The violence [in Mexico] reveals the absence of the State confronted with this phenomenon," agreed the other experts.

See Spanish original

Posted by Jane Brundage at Mexico Voices

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