Bush asks Congress to approve $1.4 billion to bolster fight against Mexico's drug trade

This morning, Bush unveiled his plan to combat Mexico's narco-trafficking by delivering to President Fecal one of the most generous aid packages of its kind in recent history. A similar push was made about a decade ago but failed after Mexico complained that it had received defunct equipment from the US. Bush, backed by Ass. Secretary of State of Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, hopes to take advantage of what the two see as a courageous and reliable Mexican administration on the drug war front. President Fecal has already devoted thousands of national troops to uprooting narco gangs, especially along the northern border. The New York Times reports:

Since taking office in December, Mr. Calderón has sent tens of thousands of troops into towns once controlled by drug cartels to restore order; extradited several well-known drug kingpins to the United States for prosecution; and stepped up seizures of cocaine, guns and illicit cash. The result has been a violent backlash from criminal organizations.

“We are at an important moment when organized crime presents a real threat to democratic governments in Central America and Mexico,” Mr. Shannon said during a telephone news conference in Washington.

Later, Mr. Shannon said Mexico had changed since 1997, when the United States last provided it with a major aid package to combat drug trafficking. Under that plan, the United States provided 73 helicopters, which were later returned amid Mexican charges that they were defective and American countercharges that they were poorly maintained, and training for elite commando units, some of whom later defected and became gunmen for the Gulf Cartel.

“This government focuses on fighting crime rather than managing it,” Mr. Shannon said. “I think this is the kind of government we need to work with.”

Billed as a “security cooperation initiative,” the agreement grew out of talks Mr. Bush held with Mr. Calderón last March in Mérida, Mexico. Before and after the meeting, the Mexican president said the United States did too little to reduce demand for drugs and to stop the flow of arms and cash southward into Mexico. Under the agreement, the United States has pledged to continue its efforts on both fronts.

But the bulk of the agreement is aid for Mexico, in the form of training for the police and military as well as aircraft and advanced technology at border crossings. If approved by Congress, the program will last at least two years but opens the door for a long-term, yearly transfer of money and training to Mexico to combat drug trafficking, as the United States currently does with Colombia.

However, as the article goes on to mention, the plan will fail if it does nothing more than pour money into a system riddled with institutional flaws. Beyond needing to improve the efficiency, but also the reliability of the police forces working to eradicate the drug cartels, the plan needs to address Fecal's concern with Bush's failure to stem US demand for drugs. In the past, the US approach toward waging its War on Drugs has been focused around cutting supply, making Mexico and the rest of Latin America the war's main battleground. The US has to take responsibility for its role in the booming drug trade that proliferates more than ever between it and Mexico.

No, I don't have a magical solution for America's addiction to cocaine, but I can assure you that whatever it is it will require more than indoctrinating little kids through ineffective and often counter-productive programs like D.A.R.E. Similar to its policy toward illegal immigration (and really every international issue out there) the US has made its fight against drug use into a war targeting an existential threat, which it believes it can eliminate with sufficient military might. Unfortunately, I don't think ridding our streets of harmful substances will be as easy as declaring war on a foreign enemy. (For a look at other alternatives to the War on Drugs that actually have a shot at working, check out the Students for Sensible Drug Policy's homepage.)

Instead, we'll have to tackle the underlying issues that give root to the problems of hard-drug use, but also crime and inadequate education. While I realize that the inner city poor aren't the only ones that fall prey to the dangerous appeal of lethal drugs, easing our country's heavy burden of widespread poverty is certainly a first step toward making substance abuse a less attractive past time. If as part of D.A.R.E cops can reach 80% of the nation's children with an anti-drug message, we should have the resources to finally start to address one of the most blatant displays of our, the world's wealthiest and most 'democratic' country, hypocrisy.

The approach of our policy outside our borders is linked to our failed attempts to lower drug consumption inside the US. Right now, our anti-narcotics aid, including the $1.4 billion that Bush is urging Congress to pass as part of his latest war funding request of nearly $190 billion, goes toward destroying drug fields and facilities in an attempt to force drug-growers and traffickers to halt production. The fact is that as long as growing poppy and marijuana plants is exponentially more lucrative than any alternative, including 'free-trade' coffee, that we try to force upon them, the drug trade will continue to thrive.

Certainly, such initiatives to offer Mexicans (but really all Latin Americans) the brain and financial power necessary for them to replace drugs with a more healthy agricultural commodity as its most valuable export, are a step in the right direction. However, to succeed, these plans need to be accompanied by more sensible domestic efforts to lower drug use. Only once we start actively turning those that we've made into our enemies into our allies (both Mexicans economically forced into producing the drugs and Americans similarly trapped into consuming them) will we see a steady decline in a destructive habit that is wearing away at the Western Hemisphere's cultural fabric.