MOTIVATING MEXICO

Jack Riley left El Paso, Texas, to become the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's top man in Chicago. Even though he's 1,500 miles
from the border now, Mexico's war against drug cartels still matters
to him. It should matter to all of us. More than 90 percent of the
marijuana, cocaine and heroin in the Chicago area enters the U.S.
from Mexico. Drug rings are expanding into the Midwest to control
distribution with violence a good bet to follow.

"If we're going to be successful, Mexico needs to be successful,"
Riley says. "We can't do it without them."

Sadly, Mexico is falling short.

Mexico's occasional triumphs are starting to seem more and more
hollow as the death toll of the 4-year-long drug war tops ... 30,000.
Every day seems to bring another horrific tale -- most recently,
cameras rolled while masked gunmen mowed down anti-crime activist
Marisela Escobedo as she held vigil at the doorstep of the Chihuahua
governor's palace.

If the mayhem continues unabated, we worry that Congress will lose
the will to renew the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative -- an infusion
of U.S. equipment and training to combat international drug
trafficking and other organized crime -- when it expires in about a year.

Now is the time to demand results from Mexico that have nothing to do
with body counts.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon must take on the hard-headed
nationalism of many Mexicans and speed up the integration of his law
enforcement with ours. The Washington Post reported that Mexican
authorities have benefited from DEA intelligence along the border.

Mexico also must fumigate corrupt local, state and federal law
enforcement and start revamping a dysfunctional judicial system. U.S.
officials estimate that only about 2 percent of those detained for
offenses related to organized crime are even brought to trial.

This will all take time, of course, but Mexico's lack of urgency is
distressing. This month, Mexico's Congress blocked an anti-crime
package that would have cleaned up local police departments and
strengthened penalties against the money laundering that feeds the drug rings.

Score one for politics over security.

Meanwhile, the leaked State Department cables offer a scathing U.S.
assessment that much of Mexico's military and law-enforcement
agencies remains an inefficient, petty, corrupt mess.

Some in Congress have had enough. This month, a bipartisan team of
three senators proposed an independent commission to re-evaluate the
U.S. approach to illegal narcotics in the Americas. As it is,
Republicans are already skeptical of foreign aid while Democrats
worry about militarizing drug enforcement in our hemisphere.

With much fanfare, the U.S. recently delivered three Black Hawk
helicopters to Mexico. They made for a great photo op. But the
vehicles and equipment are only as effective as the men and women on
the front lines and in the halls of power.

They need to do better, especially if we are counting on them as our
first line of defense.