Restrictions on US Drug Agents' Operations in Mexico Seen as Overdue Nick Miroff - The Washington Post
go to original May 15, 2013

MEXICO CITY - The recent changes ordered by new President Enrique Pena Nieto to Mexico's anti-narcotics partnership with the United States have produced markedly different reactions here and in Washington, underscoring what appear to be diverging perceptions of the drug war's goals and the costs of fighting it.

Pena Nieto's decision to limit the ability of American agents to operate in Mexico has been met with dismay by U.S. law enforcement agencies, who left a heavy footprint under the previous administration of Felipe Calderon. They warn that intelligence-sharing will suffer if they can no longer choose which Mexican force -- the army, navy or federal police -- to give sensitive information to, instructed now to funnel everything through Mexico's Interior Ministry instead.

The agents also caution that the personal relationships developed under Calderon will fray if they are no longer welcome to work side by side with trusted partners at sites such as the joint command centers where Americans helped spy on Mexican narcotics traffickers and direct operations against them.

Yet here on the southern side of the fight, where gangland violence has taken 60,000 to 90,000 lives in the past six years, there is little surprise that Pena Nieto would move to reformat the relationship. It is a change that has been coming for a long time.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

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