DRUG CARTELS PUT MEXICO, U. S. AT RISK

Who is more likely to improve human rights in Mexico?

1) Mexico's government, which has a checkered human-rights history
and a stated goal to improve.

2) Mexico's drug cartels, which have killed thousands of people this
year and have no intention of stopping.

The harvest of headless and tortured cartel victims throughout Mexico
is a testament to how seriously the drug lords take the Mexican
President Felipe Calderon's campaign against them.

The United States, which creates demand for the poisons the cartels
peddle, has a deep interest in Calderon's success and a commitment to
help him with a multiyear, $1.4 billion aid package. This Merida
Initiative predates Obama, but he is supportive of its goals.

Some in Congress want to delay a $100 million installment on that aid
package because of alleged human-rights abuses by Mexico' s military,
which Calderon unleashed against the cartels.

There are credible stories of human-rights abuses by Mexican
authorities, and the United States must stand firm for human rights.

But as President Barack Obama pointed out during weekend meetings
with Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the drug
cartels are Mexico's biggest human-rights violators.

Obama says he is confident of Calderon's commitment to crack down on
human-rights violations by Mexican authorities. Obama should deliver
that message to Congress and urge that the money be released and that
progress on human rights be monitored.

If the cartels win their war with the Mexican government, the violent
shudder will not stop at the border.

Mexico's government needs U.S. help as it works to improve its
democratic institutions and defeat vicious organized criminals.