MONTERREY MUST BE THE LINE IN THE SAND IN MEXICO DRUG WAR

Some stories make it to the front pages of our newspapers and we
cannot ignore their importance. Take for instance the victory by
leftist Ollanta Humala in Peru's presidential election Sunday. That
is unquestionably a new challenge for U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Then we have those stories that seldom make it to the front pages but
are brought up often enough that we know that the United States has a
problem. The violence in Mexico is a perfect example. With 40,000
dead since December 2006, the United States is conscious of a looming
problem on its border.

Still others, sometimes the most dangerous, escape the view of all but
the most observant. That is the case of a special report done by the
British news agency Reuters headlined: "If Monterrey falls, Mexico
fails."

It is so obvious that one wonders why journalists or politicians have
not raised the issue before. Yet that is not a question. We need to
ask what can be done to stop it.

Monterrey is the economic capital of Mexico. The per capita income in
Monterrey is $17,000 a year, twice as high as what the average Mexican
makes. It is a city 140 miles from the Texas border with 4 million
people and a reputation as a serious center for business, where
foreigners go for excellent medical treatment, where at times you
could forget you are in a foreign country because you are surrounded
by so many signs of international companies and fast food chains and
hotels.

No more.

The Reuters story details, at length, how Monterrey slowly has become
a key battleground between the drug cartels: Businessmen have to pay
protection money and the cartels recruit new members and even train
hit men.

It is a story of how the economic engine of the largest
Spanish-speaking nation in the world -- one on our southern border
- -- might become a failed state.

We've known about the violence in the states of Tamaulipas, where mass
graves are found on a regular basis. We know that drug killings have
spread to Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city.

But what had escaped notice are the drug battles between the Gulf
cartel and the Zetas being waged in and around Monterrey. What we did
not know is that 20 percent of the students of the Instituto
Tecnologico de Monterrey -- the equivalent of MIT in the United
States -- have dropped out of school to attend college in other parts
of the country or in the United States.

Monterrey cannot fall. Mexico would then be in danger of becoming a
failed state. That would be unacceptable to Mexicans and Americans
alike.