ROBERT C. BONNER ON MEXICO'S DIRE BATTLE WITH DRUG CARTELS

Robert C. Bonner writing in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs
magazine:

Mexico is in the throes of a battle against powerful drug cartels, the
outcome of which will determine who controls the country's law
enforcement, judicial, and political institutions. . . .

Destroying [these] cartels is not an impossible task. Two decades ago,
Colombia was faced with a similar-and in many ways more
daunting-struggle. In the early 1990s, many Colombians, including
police officers, judges, presidential candidates, and journalists,
were assassinated by the most powerful and fearsome drug-trafficking
organizations the world has ever seen: the Cali and Medellin cartels.
Yet within a decade, the Colombian government defeated them, with
Washington's help. The United States played a vital role in supporting
the Colombian government, and it should do the same for Mexico.

. . . If the cartels win, these criminal enterprises will continue to
operate outside the state and the rule of law, undermining Mexico's
democracy. The outcome matters for the United States as well-if the
drug cartels succeed, the United States will share a 2,000-mile border
with a narcostate controlled by powerful transnational drug cartels
that threaten the stability of Central and South America.