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How will Mexico escape? PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 17 December 2010 09:47

Mary Sanchez
Tribune Media

Over the border and through the cartels to Abuelita's casa we go.


A scary new reality arrived with the long Christmas season in Mexico. For generations, families have driven across the border from the U.S. to spend much of December and January with relatives.
This year, the Mexican government put out stark warnings to such merry travelers. Travel in convoys, in daylight and if possible, contact federal authorities for a military escort through the portions of Mexico where the drug cartel violence has been particularly gruesome.
And most of us are worried about overly exuberant security agents touching our junk as we travel for the holidays.
The U.S. is forever proclaiming its war on drugs. And if you live in an urban community where police regularly stop folks in search of those carrying contraband, you'd be justified to feel under siege.
But if you want to know what a real drug war is, behold Mexico. The scale of the casualties (more then 28,000 in four years) and disruption to daily life is difficult for most in the U.S. to grasp. Mexico's version of our Health and Human Services secretary told the Los Angeles Times he worried that his nation is on the cusp of becoming one where "killing someone can be seen as normal or natural."
It's easy to cluck our tongues about the gruesome violence "over there," but to do so is to absolve ourselves of the role our country plays in this bloody import/export business. Let's be honest: this is a trade relationship. Mexico supplies the drugs. We supply the users.
As with so many of our trade relationships, we've outsourced production -- along with the violence that often comes with keeping the products cheap. Thanks for the dope and the meth, Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive against the drug cartels four years ago this month, and they have responded by turning the country into a shooting gallery. Now what?
The recent death of a 77-year-old businessman is destined for lore. Don Alejo Garza Tamez refused to surrender his ranch after receiving an ultimatum from a drug lord. He told his employees to stay away, barricaded himself in his home and waited. The drug lord's henchmen came for him with grenades and heavy weaponry. He shot back with hunting rifles, killing four and wounding two before dying himself. Mexican Marines found the carnage.
There will always be drug buyers and sellers. This much you can bet on: the U.S. drug market will insist on being served.
What can change is the drug cartels' influence on Mexico's law enforcement, courts, elected officials and public safety. Those changes are about military force, but more importantly about training, prosecution of the corrupt and decreasing poverty -- always the handmaiden of crime. These endeavors will take time. And Calderon has two years left in office.
How can we Americans help? We can start by getting the semantics right about the drug war. Mexico is fighting it; U.S. consumers are feeding it.
(Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star).
 

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