U.S.-MEXICO BORDER COULD BECOME A GLOBAL MODEL

DRUG trafficking, mass graves and border provocations are darkening
U.S.-Mexican relations on the very eve of a 21st century destined to test
whether the world's developed and developing countries can coexist -- and
prosper -- together.

Across the globe, there are few places where the contrasting societies meet
as close-up and in such significant numbers as San Diego/Tijuana and El
Paso/Ciudad Juarez -- human settlements bisected by national borders. If
these communities can work together, maybe the larger worlds they represent
can too.

But what has the media focused on recently?

First, a series of minor but highly irritating incidents in or near Tijuana
- -- Americans detained following auto crashes, or in one case a Marine who
blundered into Mexico with two weapons in his car trunk and was then
arrested and held for 13 days.

Then, near Ciudad Juarez, the chilling reports of 100 or more buried bodies
of victims of that area's ruthless drug cartel.

And then news stories about dramatic escalation of cocaine and marijuana
seizures along the border and Mexico's Pacific coast. Clear implication:
The Mexicans are doing little to stop a ruinous, rising flood of illegal
substances into the United States.

All this has provided fodder for border city talk show hosts demonizing our
partner Mexico as a dangerous place to visit, a haven for mass murderers
and the evil land responsible for drugs corrupting American society.

But stop and think: There'd be little Mexican drug trade and fewer mafia
warlords and bloodcurdling murders if American citizens weren't buying
drugs in massive quantities.

The United States' ferocious "war on drugs" catches just 10 percent to 15
percent of shipments. This "war" is a palpable failure.

And check its side effects. Criminalization of drug possession has driven
prices sky-high. Quick profits have tempted thousands of poor Americans
into illicit drug-selling. Drug prosecutions have put as many as 1 million
people in prisons. The drug war has placed many of our inner-city
neighborhoods on the roster of the most dangerous places on Earth.

If we're not careful, this disastrous drug policy, breeding suspicion and
violence, used to justify severe, Cold War-like security checks at border
cross points, could start to undercut prospects for the strong, mutually
supportive trade ties widened so dramatically and productively in the last
decade.

Relations are currently all the more strained by an upcoming Mexican
presidential election that's prompted some Mexican politicians to beat a
nationalist drum. Mexico City has withdrawn key officials -- Consul General
Luis Herrera-Lasso in San Diego, for example -- who had worked hard to ease
tensions and work out border incidents in a muted fashion.

With luck, the Mexican political shifts won't undermine the model of
binational collaboration that emerged in San Diego/Tijuana in the '90s.
Both U.S. and Baja California border agencies were professionalized as
Herrera-Lasso and U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin in San Diego created a
law-abiding atmosphere contrasting sharply to near chaos at crossing points
early in the decade.

San Diego and Tijuana mayors, city managers and department heads began to
convene regularly. Today they have a 24-hour electronic emergency link and
coordinate on water plans, anti-pollution measures, library and arts
exchange programs, as well as police.

The '90s also saw major progress on treatment of sewage flowing from
Tijuana into the United States. Close to 1,000 maquiladora manufacturing
plants, run by global corporations, now prosper in Tijuana, some using
University of California at San Diego research. Tijuana may be Mexico's
most prosperous city.

There's lots left to do, says Charles Nathanson, executive director of the
San Diego Dialogue group that's helped orchestrate constructive
across-the-border conversations.

In a very positive move, the California Legislature's just authorized $2.5
million to study the feasibility of a joint U.S.-Mexico aqueduct to pump
sorely needed Colorado River water from the Imperial and Mexicali valleys
to the coast. One goal: to use lower interest rates from the San Diego
Water Authority and lower land and labor costs by construction within Mexico.

On the energy front, U.S. and Mexican firms have forged a partnership to
build a natural gas line to a Rosarito power plant, not far from Tijuana,
that now burns a terribly polluting oil sludge.

It's time for a "quiet compact," says Nathanson -- the U.S. side providing
low-interest loans and technical assistance to build critical
infrastructure on the Mexican side. Mexico would agree to give its
municipalities along the border vital powers they now lack -- including the
right to borrow money on the bond markets, with the fiscal and management
discipline that would bring.

Maybe in the next century we'll be smart enough to "medicalize" and
decriminalize drug use too. Lots needs to be done. But we're joined at the
hip with Mexico. Together, we can create a powerfully positive global model.