Mexico

The Mexican armed forces are a pillar of the war against drugs. Indeed, thousands of regular troops are patrolling several municipalities and large cities across Mexico while Special Forces make most of the arrests of high-profile drug lords. In a country plagued by corrupt police forces and heavily armed drug traffickers, the army (which also controls the air force) and the navy have become the country’s last resort in a war that has produced thousands of casualties. Unfortunately, the armed forces themselves are likely to become another victim of this war.

The Mexican army has experienced thousands of desertions in the last few years. According to an investigation of the newspaper Reforma, between 2001 and 2006, the army has lost an average of 30,000 members per year. Although the rate of desertion has decreased to 17,000 in 2007, this is still a very significant number; especially considering where these soldiers go after leaving the armed forces.

The likely cause of desertion in the armed forces is poor working conditions for the meager salaries. According to Benito Jiménez from Reforma, a regular soldier makes between $300 and $400 dollars a month. They could easily make a few more hundred dollars by joining private security companies. More alarming is when soldiers are paid much more for joining drug cartels. This makes the cartels much more deadly, for the trained soldiers are familiar with government procedures. In fact, cartels are now openly recruiting soldiers.

In addition to soldiers leaving for better-paid opportunities, the army is under close scrutiny regarding human rights violations. Although police forces are traditionally associated with violations of human rights in Mexico, the army is no beacon of virtue. Indeed, many military camps served as prisons during the Dirty War of the 1960s and 1970s that produced more than 1,500 disappearances. Even though the country’s human rights records have shown overall improvement, violations continue to occur throughout the territory.

As a result of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the armed forces were deliberately separated from politics. Their function was limited to the protection of the country from external threats and to relief efforts during national disasters. For decades, the army enjoyed legitimacy unmatched by other Mexican institutions. Lamentably, things have changed. Senior military officers have been tainted by corruption scandals, former member of Special Forces are now bodyguards for drug bosses, and young people aspire to work for drug cartels rather than the army.

So far, nobody knows how this other war within the armed forces will end. If the situation does not improve soon, the army, and the country, will lose the war against drugs.

This morning’s killing of Mexico’s Acting Chief of Federal Police, Edgar Millán Gómez, has put the emphasis back on the Bush Administration’s Plan Mérida. Millán Gómez was the highest-ranking official to be killed since President Felipe Calderón began the crackdown on Mexican drug cartels in 2007.

His death highlights the gravity of the war on drugs in Mexico. Shortly after his election, Calderón deployed 30,000 federal police to combat drug cartels. Despite this, over 2,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug-related violence. President Calderón was attending the funeral of another high-ranking police official when he learned of the death of Millán Gómez.

To aid our Southern neighbor, the Bush administration proposed Plan Mérida, a 3-year, $1.5 billion program to train, equip, and fund antinarcotics and anticorruption police and legal forces. Despite the plan’s importance and dollar amount, the Bush administration has been rather tight lipped about the details of the plan. When it was revealed last fall, Congress was shocked that few members had been consulted in negotiations and were expected to fund $500 million in the first year.

With the concurrent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is unlikely that Congress will fully approve the Administration’s request. The ranking Republican on the House Armed Services committee, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California) is a case in point. This morning, Hunter wrote President Bush to argue the plan paled in importance to the global war on terrorism. Similarly, Democrats argue that providing $500 million to the Mexican government is unrealistic.

Whether or not the full amount will be delivered by Congress, it is important that President Bush work with, not against, Congress to bolster anti-drug forces in Mexico. A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the drugs problem that not only affects Mexico and undermines the rule of law, but also funds gangs in the United States and destroys areas affected by illicit drug use.

Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady seeks to put the Nafta-bashing on the campaign trail during the Democratic presidential primary into perspective this week. O’Grady says not only will such rhetoric undermine U.S. efforts to assist in the modernization of Latin American economies, it tips the balance of power towards Big Labor when it comes to issues of free trade and globalization. Read the full op-ed.

Mexican officials have also expressed concern with a number of the Democratic candidates’ statements on Nafta, and many Mexicans argue the trade agreement has ushered in a new era of growth.  In a related story, Sen. Barack Obama is facing trouble following a leaked memo that his campaign gave a “wink wink, nudge nudge” to Canadian officials in Chicago, noting that his strong anti-Nafta rhetoric was more “political positioning” than future policy.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed takes a look at some of the problems facing those responsible for managing Mexico’s nasty drug war, and the new “realist” attitude adopted by the country’s new Attorney General, Eduardo Medina Mora.  Mary Anastasia O’Grady explains a new approach that Mora says seeks to curb the  “enormous economic and fire power” of the cartels who supply both the U.S. and, increasingly, Mexico’s drug users.  Full article here.

Officials in the state of Chihuahua recently announced their plans to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified bodies buried in common graves in Ciudad Juarez, after beginning a similar process in Chihuahua City. Although local authorities deny a direct link to the murders and disappearances of several hundred local women in the past 14 years, the victims’ families are hoping independent investigators will be allowed access to the remains in order to provide some answers.

Since 1993, approximately 400 young women have been murdered in Juarez, a factory town across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. Authorities have brought charges in some cases, but activists and victims’ families have contended that the accused in many cases are scapegoats, sometimes wrongly imprisoned or themselves victimized by questionable investigations, while the true culprits have not been held accountable.

The victims of the ongoing “femicides” have been young women, many of whom work in the maquiladoras (or assembly plants) that line the streets of Juarez. Many young women come from other parts of the country to seek employment in the factories, a large number of which are owned by U.S. companies taking advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since its implementation on January 1, 2004. Many girls and young women work night shifts, taking buses or walking long distances in the dark, when some of the crimes have occurred. Some bodies have been found dumped in fields together; several have not been found at all. The violence has spread beyond Juarez, with similar cases arising further south in Chihuahua City.

Many of the victims’ mothers have organized to seek justice and raise awareness of the femicides. Through organizations such as Justicia para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for our Daughters), the mothers are taking their fight abroad, hoping that international awareness will lead to greater pressure on the Mexican government. In a show of support, the U.S. House and Senate passed a resolution in May of 2007 condemning the violence in Juarez and advocating for the issue to become part of the bilateral agenda between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

President Felipe Calderon supported a new national law earlier this year that calls for integrated federal, state, and local programs involving Mexican police, media, courts, and schools to identify and combat violence against women. The law contains several measures aimed at domestic violence. Although Calderon had pledged as a candidate to resolve the killings, his administration eliminated a special commission originally organized to investigate the matter. The commission merged with Inmujeres, an organization responsible for all crimes against women nationwide. 

Photo: A memorial in Juarez, in honor of the victims (Photo by the author, who traveled to Juarez in 2005 on a delegation that examined this issue through meetings with victims’ mothers, NGO leaders, and government representatives.)

Fourteen years after its passage, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still widely debated, with concerns over issues such as job movement, workers’ rights, and environmental protection. Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Policy Program in Mexico City, testified before the U.S. Congress on December 6th that NAFTA has been disastrous for small farmers in Mexico. A detailed report with the findings and analysis she presented to Congress can be found here.

The full text of NAFTA is available here on the website of the Organization of American States (OAS).

*This article has been posted by Rich Basas both on FPA’s Migration Blog as well as the Mexico Blog this week.
Illegal immigration may be one of the hot button issues for the next Presidential election and will favor neither party in the process. In the Democratic party debates televised widely among American networks this past weekend, two things were made clear. First, immigration will likely be a key issue in the next election, and second, no one has a clear idea on how to handle the situation as there is no clear solution to the problem. This has lead to many candidates being seen as slightly differing on the issue in insignificant amounts with the exception of Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo whose recent campaign commercials make reference “that Islamic terrorists roam free in the United States because of an unsecured border”. 

Read the full article on FPA’s Migration blog here.

In an effort to decrease violence and the flow of narcotics into the U.S., President Bush asked Congress this week for $500 million to help Mexico fight drug gangs at home. Bush has worked with President Calderon on the details of the plan, which would send to Mexico equipment such as surveillance aircraft, drug-detection gear, data processing technology, and training and technical help for law enforcement agencies.

Bush’s initial $500 million request is part of a larger $1.4 billion multi-year plan.

For more information, see:
Bush Seeks Funds to Help Mexico Fight Drugs (New York Times)
Bush Seeking Aid for Mexico in Drug Fight (Washington Post)

Appearing on CNN to promote his new book, “Revolution of Hope,” former Mexican President Vicente Fox offered his views on a variety of issues including immigration and U.S. politics. Though he did not explicitly endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Fox said that more women need to be elected.

Referring to his post-presidency, Fox said he is following the lead of former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter by investing his time in important issues and building a presidential library to carry on his work.

Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda recently addressed the Foreign Policy Association’s World Leadership Forum in New York.  Click here to view his speech on U.S.-Mexico relations.