A TREATY THAT CAN HELP STEM DRUG VIOLENCE IN MEXICO

The brutal murder of retired Mexican army Gen. Mauro Tello in Cancun
earlier this month was a stark reminder of the wave of drug-related
violence that is tormenting Mexico and that threatens to spill over
into the United States.

The escalating violence unleashed by Mexico's drug cartels as they
struggle to control trafficking routes and expand their illegal
business left 5,700 dead in 2008, with homicide rates spiraling out
of control in cities along the U.S. border.

Illegal trafficking of arms from the U.S. helps fuel the drug
violence. While there are variables in Mexico's struggle against
narcotics-related violence over which the U.S. has little input -
such as corruption among the police - working to stem the illegal
flow of weapons is something Washington can do. There is a key
mechanism in place for doing so; namely, an international convention
signed by the U.S. more than 10 years ago but never ratified by the Senate.

This convention, known by its acronym as CIFTA (Inter-American
Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in
Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Material), calls
for cooperation among members of the Organization of American States
(OAS) to control illegal weapons.

It promotes the exchange of information on such matters, provides
training and technical assistance to stem the flow of illegal arms,
coordinates mutual legal and law enforcement efforts and strengthens
export controls. It also mandates cooperation in tracing illegally
manufactured or trafficked firearms and establishes arms trafficking
as an extraditable offense in all bilateral extradition treaties.

The need for the U.S. Senate to ratify CIFTA has never been greater.
The U.S.-Mexican border is a central route for illicit weapons
destined for Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. It is nearly
impossible to purchase guns legally in Mexico, and gun stores in U.S.
border states sell twice as many weapons as those in any other U.S. region.

In 2005, the year after the U.S. ban on assault weapons expired,
Mexican authorities seized more than 10,000 smuggled weapons, of
which 90 percent came from the U.S. A recent Mexican government study
spoke of as many as 2,000 guns per day crossing the border. As drugs
flow north into the U.S. and arms are smuggled south, rates of
violence in Mexico and Central America are skyrocketing, with
increasingly more security and law enforcement officials falling victim.

In June 2008, the U.S. and Mexico signed a multi-year, billion-dollar
program to combat the threat of drug trafficking and illegal-arms
transfers in Mexico, Central America, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, known as the "Merida Initiative." With this initiative, the
U.S. recognized that its own security and well-being are linked to
that of its neighbors in the Americas, especially Mexico, and that we
have a shared responsibility to counter the threat of narcotics
trafficking and drug violence.

But this nascent program will only begin the task of training and
equipping the military and civilian forces that are needed to fight
drug traffickers and their weapons.

Given the challenge to Mexico's security by the drug cartels, it is
all the more ironic and unfortunate that the U.S. has not ratified
CIFTA. The convention was put in force in 1998 and has now been
ratified by nearly all the other members of the OAS, including
Mexico. The convention reflects U.S. laws and regulations and does
not conflict with the Second Amendment rights of the Constitution to
bear arms. Its ratification would enhance the value of taxpayers'
investment in the Merida Initiative and promote U.S. interest at home
and abroad. The U.S. cannot exhort other OAS members to comply with
the terms of a convention that it has not itself ratified.

President Obama will embark on what promises to be his first major
regional encounter with our partners in the hemisphere at the Summit
of the Americas meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in April. He should
use that occasion to state that the United States intends to ratify
CIFTA or, better yet, work with Congress to deliver a ratified
convention at the summit.

Ratification of CIFTA would send a strong signal to Mexico and to
other countries in the region that the U.S. is determined to be a
reliable partner in efforts to promote the security and well-being of
all citizens in the Americas.

By taking this opportunity early in a new administration to support a
multilateral legal mechanism to combat the tools of violence
associated with the drug trade, the U.S. shoulders its shared
responsibility to work with its Mexican partner on this critical
security problem.