U.S. POLICY ON DRUGS HAS BIG REPERCUSSIONS ABROAD

Your article "The Perilous State of Mexico" (Weekend Journal, Feb. 21)
overemphasizes the more gruesome and shocking aspects of drug-related
violence, while omitting issues that are central to a full and
contextual understanding of how Mexico is fighting drug-trafficking
organizations. Firstly, while Mexico doesn't in any way minimize the
seriousness of the challenge posed by organized crime, the suggestion
that it is close to a "failed state" is simply wrong. As your article
notes, Mexico "has a thriving democracy, the world's 13th-largest
economy and a growing middle class," making any comparison with failed
or failing states, as you yourself again note, a "stretch." Why make
it then?

Secondly, I was surprised by your treatment of this issue as if it
were almost an exclusively Mexican phenomenon, little to do with the
U.S., only mentioning U.S. demand, the "motor for the drugs trade," as
you call it, once and at the very end of the article. Moreover, you
fail to note or analyze three other bilateral or transnational aspects
of this challenge that demand greater cooperation between our two
countries under the principle of shared responsibility, namely the
flow of weapons, bulk cash and chemical precursors from the U.S. into
Mexico.

The article, in short, provides an incomplete and one-sided summary of
the fight against organized crime being waged in Mexico, yet provides
little analysis to what lies behind the violence, and little reference
to the efforts and opinions of the Government of Mexico to put a stop
to this violence.

Arturo Sarukhan

Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.

Washington