MEXICO TAKES ON THE DRUG CARTELS

President Calderon Is Serious About Restoring Law And Order. Here's How The
U.S. Can Help.

The tales of carnage coming out of Mexico are grim. Within the last
two weeks, 72 migrants from Central and South America were massacred
in the border state of Tamaulipas; the mayor of a small town, Hidalgo,
was assassinated by the drug cartels; and a federal prosecutor
disappeared, presumably kidnapped. The U.S. media point incessantly to
the 28,000 drug-related homicides since President Felipe Calderon took
office in December 2006. The Los Angeles Times describes the situation
as "Mexico under siege."

Simply put, the Mexican government is in a fight to the death with
powerful drug cartels-and it is an urgent national interest of the
United States that Mexico prevails.

Shortly after he became president Mr. Calderon declared "war" on the
five major drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico. Unlike the
declarations of his predecessors, however, this was not a symbolic
gesture. His campaign is for real.

Mr. Calderon realized these cartels pose a serious threat to the state
itself-and that they must be dismantled and destroyed if his country
is to reach its economic and political potential. By ridding itself of
these corrupting criminal organizations, Mexico will be able to
attract investment as never before and fully exploit its geographic
advantage as the shortest foreign supply route, along with Canada, to
the biggest market in the world. Destroying the cartels would also
restore security for the Mexican people and put an end to the culture
of impunity.

The vast majority of Mexico's drug-related homicides in the last four
years involved members of one drug cartel killing members of rival
cartels. Most of the rest, unfortunately, involved cartel members
killing police and military. Nevertheless, Mexico is hardly a nation
under siege: The overall homicide rate of about 12 in 100,000
inhabitants is far lower than Venezuela's (48 per 100,000) or even
Brazil's (25 per 100,000).

The cartels are fighting each other in large part because the Mexican
government has begun to destabilize their operations. It has seized
record amounts of drugs and money, and it has also removed several
cartel kingpins with the killings earlier this year of Arturo Beltran
Leyva and Ignacio Coronel, and with the recent arrest of Edgar Vasquez
Villareal, aka "La Barbie." The cartels are also attempting to force
the government to back off by committing atrocities designed to
intimidate the government, the media and the public.

The U.S. should understand that if the Mexican government does not
succeed in ridding the country of these ruthless criminal
organizations it will be dominated by them. A Mexican narco-state
would represent a national security threat to the U.S. and vastly
complicate efforts to secure our own border.

In 2007, President Bush met with Mr. Calderon in Merida, the capital
of Yucatan state, and agreed to help Mexico in its battle against the
cartels. The Merida Initiative was launched the following year, and it
has been embraced by the Obama administration. The problem with this
$1.4 billion program is that it is poorly focused. Too much of the
initial aid was spent on the military and military equipment. As we
learned in Colombia, where that country's powerful drug cartels were
eliminated in the 1990s, that's not enough.

The Mexican military does have a role to play, and initially it was
the only reasonably non-corrupt government institution that Mr.
Calderon could turn to. But dismantling large criminal organizations
requires capable law enforcement and a judiciary that acts with
integrity. Accordingly, the U.S. should sharply refocus its efforts
and, in partnership with Mexico, advise and help reform its federal
and state police forces.

Recently it was disclosed that earlier this year more than 3,000
members of Mexico's federal police were fired. This is a positive
sign. Previous Mexican governments tried and failed at reform; this
time the government is determined to weed out and prosecute corrupt
cops and develop a professional force. Here the U.S. can advise on the
best practices to internalize integrity into law-enforcement
institutions, including the establishment of effective internal
affairs capabilities.

Judicial reform is also underway. Mexico is moving toward a system of
trials in which evidence is taken in courtrooms open to the public and
the media, providing badly needed transparency and accountability.
This, too, is an area where the U.S. can be of considerable help,
provided it understands that judicial reforms need to be consistent
with Mexico's objectives and its own Constitution.

A second problem with the Merida Initiative is that Mexico has
received a mere 9% of the funds appropriated by Congress. This is just
unacceptable. If your neighbor is drowning, he cannot wait forever for
the life preserver.

The U.S. needs to agree on a strategy with Mexico to defeat the
cartels and hold all of the usually squabbling U.S. agencies
accountable for executing their assigned roles. In the 1990s, the U.S.
and Colombia successfully used the "Kingpin Strategy" that involved
identifying and attacking all the vulnerabilities of the cartels,
including their cash flow and supply and distribution chains. By
weakening the organizations, it was possible to then locate and
incapacitate, often by extradition to the U.S., cartel kingpins and
potential successors. Although the U.S. today is doing better at
interdicting weapons and drug cash flowing into Mexico (both of which
should be part of the broader strategy), there simply is no
agreed-upon, overall strategy as in Colombia.

Only President Obama can ensure that the U.S. government adopts a
comprehensive strategy, and that there is real, coordinated
follow-through among U.S. government agencies. This will lead to
greater security and prosperity for both nations.