An Ally in the War on Drugs

I live on our nation's border with Mexico. I have firsthand knowledge and
experience of our nation's "war on drugs." I spent more than 26 years of my
life on the front line of that "war" as a Border Patrol agent, enforcing
our nation's immigration and narcotics laws. For 11 of those years, I was
the Border Patrol sector chief in McAllen, Tex., and El Paso.

The most important lesson I learned while working on the border is that to
be successful in our fight against drug trafficking, we must help Mexico
reform its police apparatus as well as its legal and judicial systems. If
the United States and Mexico are to stop drug smuggling, we must cooperate
and work in an environment of mutual understanding. Because about 60
percent of the cocaine on the streets of the United States passes through
Mexico, its cooperation is vital to any counter-drug effort. Merely
criticizing Mexico achieves nothing.

The United States consumes more than $5 billion a year in illegal drugs. We
should own up to our responsibility and stop trying to blame others.
Indeed, a recent survey found that 46 percent of Americans believe that
Americans are responsible for the problem of illegal drugs in the United
States. Interestingly, 50 percent of those same Americans believe that
certification should be made tougher. They believe that we as a country are
responsible for creating the demand, but we need to punish foreign nations
for our problem. We should not continue to use the certification process as
a forum to vent the frustrations we as a nation feel about the devastating
impact of drugs on our communities.

The Mexican government bristles at the annual certification process,
viewing it as an affront to their nation and an infringement on their
sovereignty. The Mexican ambassador to the United States, Jesus
Reyes-Heroles, refers to the certification process as "the most stressful
period each year in the relationship between the two nations. This stress
does not, in our view, enhance the cooperation essential to defeat this
mutual scourge."

Our nation shares a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, but we along the border
share more than that with our neighbors to the south. Not only have our
economies long been interdependent, but our cultures also are tied by more
than 400 years of history.

Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1993, communities on both sides of the
border have become an integral part of the hemispheric trade success of
North America with Latin America. American exports to Mexico increased by
126 percent from 1990 to 1996. The trade pact not only makes economic
sense, it is also a logical evolution of international trade and commerce.
It is a vibrant success story in the making, but it can be jeopardized by
the process of certification and the contentious issues associated with it
each year.

Mexico's efforts in this "war on drugs" are notable and should not be
overlooked. In the past year, Mexico has enacted money-laundering
legislation and created new investigative units to help root out official
corruption. The Mexicans also have begun to rebuild their anti-drug
institutions under the leadership of Attorney General Jorge Madrazo.

The Mexican government also has improved its efforts relating to
extradition and has signed a bilateral extradition protocol. Mexico City
already has approved the extradition of 27 fugitives from U.S. justice. Of
the 27, 13 fugitives were extradited (seven for drug crimes) while the
remaining 14 have appealed their extraditions.

We must continue to build on this kind of progress. The United States
policy of judging the drug-fighting efforts of other countries is
counterproductive and must be changed if we are to have any real impact on
international drug trafficking. We must develop a process in which we
engage our partners through cooperation rather than confrontation.

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company