HIT CARTELS: U.S.-MEXICO TEAMWORK

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hit the nail on the head
when she said, "There is no question that they (Mexican drug cartels)
are fighting against both of our governments."

As U.S. leaders met with Mexican leaders in Mexico City on Tuesday,
it was clear they want to work as a team to hit the cartels on the head.

It's not only the bloodshed, the some 16,000 killings in the
country's ongoing drug war, it's the economy of both nations.

On Tuesday. state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, reiterated what
Mexico means to this city. Trade with Juarez accounts for 60,000 jobs
for El Pasoans. He pointed out again that 20 percent of the country's
trade is with Mexico -- and billions of dollars of that trade comes
through El Paso.

He said losing our trade with Mexico would "be like losing Fort Bliss."

El Paso officials have been espousing those numbers for years. So it
was good to see that while Clinton was leading a delegation to Mexico
City, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was emphasizing U.S.-Mexico concerns in
Washington and Shapleigh and the FBI were doing the same here, where
Juarez has become ground zero in the war -- and that's seriously
affecting the maquiladora industry.

Shapleigh pointed out that it's been decades since such a contingent
of U.S. Cabinet members went to Mexico.

Joining Clinton in the Mexican capital city were Defense Secretary
Robert Gates; Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; National
Intelligence Director Dennis Blair; and John Brennan, President
Obama's counterterrorism and homeland security advisor.

Most often when U.S. officials travel to Mexico, it's for one-on-one
talks; sometimes, it's president-to-president. For instance,
President Obama is to host Mexico President Felipe Calderon at a
state dinner on May 19.

This was something else. This was action. This was the beginning of
teamwork to set plans, then execute those plans so that Mexico is
safe again and so that the rapid erosion of healthy commerce between
the two countries can resume.

We need to be involved in helping Mexico, and it looks like we're
moving in that direction.