THE FAILED STATE NEXT DOOR

Mexico Is Descending into Violent Chaos; We Have Ourselves to Blame

Back in June, after a particularly deadly day in his country's
current drug war, Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed his
nation to soothe nerves, predict success and apportion blame. And
blame he did. He notified his countrymen that their plight stems from
the fact that they live next door to the biggest drug user on the planet.

This astonishing claim was confirmed by Josepha Califano in an NPR
interview shortly thereafter. Mexico's former Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare explained that though the U.S. comprises only 5
percent of the world's population, it uses fully two thirds of the
world's illegal drugs. Mexican drug cartels rake in $30-40 billion
annually from our national drug habit.

The origins of Mexico's misery are here, in places like Baltimore,
where nearly 10 percent of the urban population is addicted,
according to the Open Society Institute. I'm always amazed how we are
so successful at ignoring this shameful social problem in our midst.
A few years ago, the New York Times reported that the vast majority
of Baltimore's homicides involved people with criminal records --
largely due to the drug trade. This was nearly taken as joyous news
around town, as if to say the obscene murder toll merely afflicted an
alien, disenfranchised subset of the population, not the mainstream.
This opinion is certainly perpetuated by the Sunpapers, where the
majority of Baltimore's murders receive brief notice in the recesses
of the newspaper, but if a middle class innocent is killed, that's
instant front page news.

Drugs excuse the violence in Baltimore. They are our excuse to shove
it to the shadows and get on with business (and the Ravens). But this
is the tale across the country, and now our willful ignorance crosses
national boundaries, so that we do not admit the growing national
security threat in Mexico: Our populous and rich neighbor, an
important trade partner and source of much needed labor, and a
homeland to millions in this country, is very nearly a failed state.
I'm afraid there's no other way to put it. Consider the gruesome evidence:

Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million across the Rio Grande river from
El Paso -- once safer than most U.S. cities of comparable size -- now
knows 2,000 murders per year. By comparison, the 30-year long
"Troubles" in Northern Ireland claimed 3,000 lives in all. Throughout
northern Mexico, mayors have been assassinated (one was recently
stoned to death), and a former presidential candidate was kidnapped
in May (he's still missing). Open air gun battles and car bombings
are becoming increasingly common occurrences. Headless corpses appear
alongside highways, and last month a mass grave of 70 Central
American migrants was uncovered, purported victims of the Zetas, one
of Mexico's most vicious cartels.

The Mexican cartels operate -- and massacre -- with utter impunity.
They think nothing of descending the whole nation into war in their
struggle to control the lucrative drug routes to the US. The Mexican
government has deployed the military to patrol the streets, but since
this move, the violence has only escalated. That the army has been
deployed and the cartels respond with car bombs and mass graves
spells deep trouble. As Rousseau pointed out, the government should
be very careful in resorting to violence; if it is met with ever
bolder reprisals (car bombs and mass graves, for example), it risks
delegitimizing its authority.

So we see in Mexico open lawlessness, shocking violence and
increasingly impotent government. And yet, Mexico's plight is almost
entirely absent from debates in our current electoral cycle. Mexico
only enters the discussion when it comes to illegal immigrants, whom
some would rather toss back into the cauldron below. In truth, our
national drug addiction has nearly ruined the country next door, and
all we can think to do is erect a wall along the border between us.
Perhaps this wall can repel some migrant workers, but it cannot
contain our demand for drugs, which incessantly seeps southward.

Mexico's carnage is a national security threat entirely of our own
making. For that matter, so is Baltimore's, if only we would see it
as it really is. We are perennially resolute in ignoring our drug
problem -- but Mexico, pushed to the brink, is not, and we should
take notice. Mexico is currently considering radical fixes, like
legalizing drugs. The only thing is, Mexico is not the problem addict.