BORDER FORUM ON U.S. WAR ON DRUGS TO FOCUS ON CREATION OF 'RULE OF LAW'

Juarez is fed up.

The 1.8 million people living there are tired of the drug war that
began 20 months ago. They are tired of elected officials who don't
listen, and they are tired of living in a city where corruption is so
common that the rule of law is absent.

Now the people want change.

"The violence in Juarez is a consequence of what we have failed to do
as a society in this city," said Lucinda Vargas, general director of
the new civic association called Juarez Strategic Plan. "The crime
and violence are not the problem. They are a consequence of us not
holding elected officials accountable, of us as a society allowing
corruption to exist at all levels. The violence occurs because we
live in a city where there is no rule of law.

"This is what has to change in Juarez. It's what we are changing.
It's the only way to stop the violence."

In an effort to increase support for the association's Plan Juarez,
the leaders of this civic movement are partnering with elected
officials and scholars in El Paso to co-host The Global Public Policy
Forum on the U.S. War on Drugs.

The conference will begin tonight at the University of Texas at El
Paso and continue for two more days. On Monday night, the conference
will shift to a convention center in Juarez, where more than 2,000
people have already signed up to hear featured speaker Sergio
Fajardo, former mayor of Medellin, Colombia.

When Fajardo took office in 2003, Medellin was known as the
"deadliest city in the world." When he left office four years later,
the drug cartels that routinely killed thousands of people each year
no longer controlled Medellin.

Fajardo is in Juarez at the request of Plan Juarez, a grass-roots
association that is funded by businesses, that is supported by most
elected officials and that pushes an agenda that was developed over
two years. Ideas from 14,000 people in Juarez were used to develop
the strategic plan.

It aims to establish a strong rule-of-law society that will change
the way the city operates.

"The higher your rule of law, the higher your per capita income will
be," said Vargas, an economist who was born in Juarez and educated in
the United States. "We are looking at the root cause of the violence.
We are trying to change Juarez fundamentally."

Plan Juarez is trying to change the model of governance in the city
that for years has relied on bribes and secret handshakes to get
things done. In Juarez, city department heads are political
appointees, not professionals. Government operations are not open.
Citizen participation is rarely sought.

The historical lack of transparency in government lets public
corruption fester, Vargas said. That in turn leads to a lack of
respect for the law and authority. Crime, including the drug war, has
engulfed Juarez.

In America, a similar situation existed in Youngstown, Ohio, which in
1963 was described by the Saturday Evening Post as "Crime Town, U.S.A."

Youngstown "exemplifies the truism that rackets cannot survive
without two basic conditions -- the sanction of police and
politicians and an apathetic public," the Post wrote. It went on to
say: "The time now has come for action on the part of the whole
citizenry. Until each honest man is aroused, the cesspool will
remain. And Youngstown will remain a shame to the nation."

A culture of corruption continued to infect the Youngstown area well
into this decade. Its congressman of 17 years, a bombastic Democrat
named Jim Traficant, went to federal prison in 2002 after a jury in
Cleveland convicted him on 10 counts of bribery and racketeering.
Traficant was released from prison two weeks ago.

Residents of Youngstown who wanted to change the culture -- and to
stop electing politicians such as Traficant -- went to Sicily to
examine how people in that country attacked the mafia.

Plan Juarez's model is Medellin, Colombia.

In the 1990s, Medellin was in the middle of a vicious cartel drug
war. About 7,000 people were killed each year, and social experts
said the cartels ran the city.

Aided by the United States and its Plan Colombia, the governments
slowly retook control of each city. Fajardo, a former mayor of
Medellin, is seen by many as the country's savior.

An independent, Fajardo won election in 2003. His candidacy sprang
from a civic movement, not a political party. Once in office, he
increased money for education, built libraries and museums, and
improved the city's transportation system with cable cars.

Vargas said Fajardo's agenda focused on giving the poor a chance to
succeed. He also sought citizen participation and his government was
open, something Plan Juarez is trying to duplicate.

By the time Fajardo left office, the killings were down to 500 a
year. He is now running for president.

"If you are generating opportunity for people, they don't have to go
find opportunity in crime," Vargas said. "All Fajardo did was
implement healthy business, social and policy principles that should
be in place for any civil and modern society. It's what we want to do here."

It is also what Mexican President Felipe Calderon wants to do for
Mexico. Calderon's Vision 2030 Plan aims to create a country in which
the rule of law will prevail.

Plan Juarez also encompasses the goals of the Merida Initiative,
which the U.S. Congress approved in 2008 to help Mexico fight the
drug cartels. Under the initiative the United States will provide
Mexico with $1.6 billion over three years.

Some of the money will be used by the Mexican military for training
and equipment. About $73 million will be used by Mexico for judicial reform.

El Paso city Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who helped organize UTEP's War on
Drugs conference, is familiar with Plan Juarez and its long-range
goal. O'Rourke maintains that the only way the United States can
really help Mexico evolve is by changing U.S. drug laws.

"Most people look at what is going on in Mexico and say that country
is corrupt and the drug war is their problem," O'Rourke said. "We in
the U.S. are culpable. They want to create a viable rule of law, but
it cannot happened when the country is pinned down in fear by warring cartels."

Since 2008, Juarez and Mexico have been plagued by the drug war. More
than 6,000 people in Mexico have been killed, including elected
officials, police officers, lawyers and innocent bystanders. Juarez
remains the deadliest city in Mexico. In 2008, 1,623 people were
killed there. This year, that homicide total has already been surpassed.

"Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, are ground zero on the
war on drugs. More people are dying, more drugs are being transited,
and more federal dollars are being spent in this region than in any
other theater of this war," O'Rourke said.