Drugs, Guns and a Reality Check
By Eugene Robinson
Copyright by The Washington Post
Friday, March 27, 2009; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/26/AR2009032603115.html
It's an indictment of our fact-averse political culture that a statement of the blindingly obvious could sound so revolutionary. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on her plane Wednesday as she flew to Mexico for an official visit. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border . . . causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."
Amazingly, U.S. officials have avoided facing these facts for decades. This is not just an intellectual blind spot but a moral failure, one that has had horrific consequences for Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and other Latin American and Caribbean nations. Clinton deserves high praise for acknowledging that the United States bears "shared responsibility" for the drug-fueled violence sweeping Mexico, which has claimed more than 7,000 lives since the beginning of 2008. But that means we will also share responsibility for the next 7,000 killings as well.
Our long-running "war on drugs," focusing on the supply side of the equation, has been an utter disaster. Domestically, we've locked up hundreds of thousands of street-level dealers, some of whom genuinely deserve to be in prison and some of whom don't. It made no difference. According to a 2007 University of Michigan study, 84 percent of high school seniors nationwide said they could obtain marijuana "fairly easily" or "very easily." The figure for amphetamines was 50 percent; for cocaine, 47 percent; for heroin, 30 percent.
At the same time, we've persisted in a Sisyphean attempt to cut off the drug supply at or near the source. When I was The Washington Post's correspondent in South America, I once took a nerve-racking helicopter ride to visit a U.S.-funded military base in the Upper Huallaga Valley of Peru. It was the place where most of the country's coca -- the plant from which cocaine is processed -- was being grown, and the valley was crawling with Maoist guerrillas who funded their insurgency with money they extorted from the coca growers and traffickers. Eventually, the coca business was eliminated in the Upper Huallaga. But now it's flourishing in other parts of Peru, and last year authorities there seized a record 30 tons of cocaine -- meaning, by rule of thumb, that at least 10 times that much was probably produced and shipped.
In Colombia, I saw how the huge, brutally violent Medellin and Cali cocaine cartels threatened to turn the country into the world's first "narco-state." The Colombian government, again with U.S. assistance, managed to pulverize these sprawling criminal organizations into smaller units, but the business continues to thrive -- and to provide most of the cocaine that finds its way to the American market. Last year, Colombian authorities seized 119 tons of cocaine. Money from the drug trade sustains the longest-running leftist insurgency in the hemisphere. Ever inventive, the Colombian traffickers have gone so far as to build their own miniature submarines to smuggle illicit cargo into the United States.
And now Mexico has become the focal point of the drug trade, with its cartels blasting their way to dominance in the business of bringing marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs to the American market. Violence among drug gangs, not just along the border but throughout the country, has reached crisis levels. The government's strategy is to break up the big cartels, as the Colombians did. But even if authorities succeed, the industry will live on.
In the case of Mexico, there's a complicating factor: This is a two-way problem. While drugs are being moved north across the border, powerful assault weapons -- purchased in the United States -- are being moved south to arm the cartels' foot soldiers. Clinton's statement about "shared responsibility" recognizes that if we expect Mexico to do something about the flow of drugs, we're obliged to do something about the counterflow of guns.
First, though, let's be honest with ourselves. This whole disruptive, destabilizing enterprise has one purpose, which is to supply the U.S. market with illegal drugs. As long as the demand exists, entrepreneurs will find a way to meet it. The obvious demand-side solution -- legalization -- would do more harm than good with some drugs, but maybe not with others. We need to examine all options. It's time to put everything on the table, because all we've accomplished so far is to bring the terrible violence of the drug trade ever closer to home.
eugenerobinson@washpost.com
Clinton Says U.S. Feeds Mexico Drug Trade
By MARK LANDLER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: March 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?scp=1&sq=hillary%20clinton%20mexico%20drug&st=cse
MEXICO CITY — Seeking to ease a cross-border relationship strained by drug trafficking, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday and offered the clearest acknowledgment yet from an Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent narcotics trade in Mexico.
“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Mrs. Clinton said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were coupled with a pledge that the administration would seek $80 million from Congress to provide Mexican authorities with three Black Hawk helicopters to help the police track drug runners.
She also came bearing a new White House initiative, announced Tuesday, to deploy 450 more law enforcement officers at the border, and crack down on the smuggling of guns and drug money into Mexico.
The diplomatic offensive, which will include visits by several other senior American officials ahead of President Obama’s visit next month, was calculated to mollify Mexican officials, who have chafed in recent years at what they regard as Mexico-bashing in Washington. It seems to have worked.
Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s foreign secretary, said the new measures were “much along the line of cooperation that we have been trying to build upon.” But, she added, “there is always room for improvement in the U.S.”
Indeed, some of the Obama administration’s measures are likely to run squarely into American political realities. For example, early indications that Mr. Obama will push for stricter controls on the sale of assault rifles have already set off an outcry among gun-control opponents.
“Politically, this is a very big hurdle in our Congress,” Mrs. Clinton conceded.
Since last year, battles between law enforcement authorities and cartels, and other drug-related violence, have resulted in more than 7,200 deaths in Mexico, raising doubts about the government’s control over parts of its territory. The violence has also begun to spill across the border.
Mrs. Clinton met with the President Felipe Calderón and praised his campaign to root out corruption in the police force and the courts. She said Mr. Obama had not decided whether to post National Guard troops along the border, an issue that has aroused opposition in Mexico.
On Wednesday, the Mexican Army said it had arrested one of the country’s most-wanted drug smugglers, Héctor Huerta, near Monterrey, the northern city Mrs. Clinton will visit Thursday.
Mrs. Clinton said that in addition to sending the helicopters, the United States would help supply Mexican law enforcement officers with night-vision goggles, body armor and other equipment to battle the cartels, which are heavily armed.
“We’ve got to figure out how to stop these bad guys,” she said. “These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials.”
Drugs are not the only issue vexing relations between the United States and Mexico. Congress recently canceled funds for a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to haul cargo on American highways. Mexico retaliated by imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on 89 American exports.
Mexican officials complain about mixed signals from the United States, noting that even as the administration steps up law enforcement help on the border, Congress has cut back funds for a three-year, $1.4 billion drug countertrafficking campaign called the Merida Initiative.
Even small slights rankle. When Forbes magazine put the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, on its list of the world’s richest people, it elicited more attention, and offense, in Mexico than when Mr. Obama acknowledged that the drug trade was a two-way street.
“There have been lots of different voices from the Obama administration,” said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “Hillary Clinton’s mission is to make sure there is a single voice.”
Mrs. Clinton said the administration was retooling the truck program to get it through Congress, and she expressed optimism that lawmakers were receptive but did not give details.
She defended the decision of Congress to withhold funds for the Merida Initiative, saying the lawmakers were watching to see that the $700 million already spent was being used wisely. The administration, she said, was weighing whether to ask for more money for the program.
The agreement between the nations was most vivid in comments by Ms. Espinosa and Mrs. Clinton on the need to crack down on gun smuggling. In December, Ms. Espinosa stood by as Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, denied a link between the expiration of an assault weapons ban and drug violence.
“It is shocking to hear an American politician admit there is an issue,” said Denise Dresser, a prominent Mexican commentator and political scientist.
There were echoes of the presidential candidate in Mrs. Clinton’s discussion of America’s fitful war on drugs. She mentioned many failed efforts, going back to the “Just Say No” campaign.
“Clearly what we have been doing has not worked,” she said.
Marc Lacey contributed reporting.
Clinton: U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Copyright by The Washington Post
Wednesday, March 25, 2009; 2:51 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032501034.html?hpid=topnews
MEXICO CITY, March 25 -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a stark mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies had been a failure and contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border.
"Clearly what we've been doing has not worked," Clinton told reporters on her plane at the start of her two-day trip. "It is unfair for our incapacity to have effective policies" on curbing drug use, narcotics shipments and the flow of guns "to be creating a situation where people are holding the Mexican government and people responsible. That's not right."
Clinton's comments appeared to be the most sweeping yet by a top Obama administration official accepting a U.S. role in the drug havoc in Mexico. More than 7,000 Mexicans have been killed since January 2008, as cartels have warred over trafficking routes and lashed out at the government for deploying the military against them.
Mexican officials have long complained that the U.S. government pointed the finger at its neighbor while ignoring how American demand for cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines fueled the trade. Mexican authorities also blame some of the violence on the flow of American guns, which have been used in about 90 percent of the drug killings, according to both U.S. and Mexican officials.
Clinton's comments came at the start of a U.S. blitz to improve relations at a moment when Mexico is facing perhaps the greatest challenge to its stability in a century. The Obama administration announced Tuesday it was sending hundreds more agents and extra high-tech gear to the border to intercept weapons and drug proceeds heading south. U.S. border states have become alarmed about a possible spillover of the drug violence, and Congress has held a flurry of hearings on the bloodshed and the potential threat to Mexico's institutions.
Clinton signaled that the U.S. government planned to do more. She vowed to press for swift delivery of equipment promised under the Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico and Central America. Mexican officials and U.S. lawmakers say there are long lag times for helicopters and other gear that are desperately needed. In addition, Congress has approved only $700 million of the $950 million that the Bush administration requested for the program since it began last year.
Clinton also the administration would "try to get more tools to go after the gun dealers" and those who purchase weapons to pass on to the cartels. She did not elaborate. Several U.S. lawmakers have already balked at the idea of cracking down on guns on the American side of the border, and the idea could face an uphill battle in Congress.
Mexican officials, historically sensitive to criticism from their richer, more powerful neighbor, have bristled at conclusions in U.S. military reports and in hearings recently that their government was losing control over parts of the country. President Felipe Calderón has described such statements as part of a "campaign" against his country.
Seeking to heal the strain, Clinton went out of her way to accept U.S. responsibility for the problem. She said drug demand in the United States remained "insatiable," blaming a lack of treatment facilities and insufficient campaigns to discourage narcotics abuse. American drug abusers provide Mexican traffickers with an estimated $15 to 25 billion a year.
"Neither interdiction [of drugs] nor reducing demand have been successful," Clinton said, noting that "we have been pursuing these strategies for 30 years."
"We've got to take a hard look at what we can do" to cut off the supply of drugs and "stop the bad guys," the secretary added. "The amount of violence going on because of these drug wars in Mexico is horrific."
Clinton's assessment appeared to be at odds with some conclusions by U.S. anti-drug officials. The Drug Enforcement Agency says that traffickers have had an increasingly hard time getting their shipments over the U.S. border, resulting in higher prices and lower purity for cocaine on American streets.
Michael Braun, who recently retired as a senior DEA official, told a congressional hearing this month that the U.S. military and law-enforcement agencies had dealt significant blows to traffickers' transportation networks.
"The seizure rates are off the charts for the last three or four years," he said. One of the reasons for the escalating violence in Mexico, he said, was the effectiveness of the U.S. operations against traffickers' transportation and financial infrastructure.
U.S. authorities, including Clinton, have lauded Calderón for dispatching 45,000 troops to battle the cartels.
While emphasizing the U.S. desire to cooperate on drugs, Clinton said she wanted her trip to also illustrate the broad range of issues the two countries cooperate on routinely, ranging from trade to education to the environment.
"The relationship we have with Mexico is much broader and deeper" than the drug issue, she said.
Clinton is planning to travel Thursday to Monterrey, Mexico's business capital, before heading back to Washington. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. are also scheduled to visit Mexico before Obama arrives in mid-April.
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