Former U.S. Ambassador Garza: Let's be Honest About Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following opinion-editorial column is by former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza:

Breaking through the noise of election year rhetoric on both sides of the border is essential if we are to gain a more complete understanding of the situation on the ground in Mexico.

New travel warnings for Americans in Mexico issued in recent weeks by the U.S. State Department and rhetoric over the drug war among candidates for president in Mexico last month surely make one wonder if there is a path forward for the United States and Mexico to achieve security and to generate greater prosperity for both nations.

Bubbling underneath the media headlines comes a report from Baker Institute fellow Gary Hale that merits more attention.

"Mexico is a friend, not an enemy," writes Hales, and no truer words could be spoken. Among the threats to our nation's security, violence in and from Mexico is simply not a specific threat to the U.S.

That's not to say we cannot, nor should not, be deeply engaged and concerned about Mexico's ability to confront and triumph over the violence waged by warring drug cartels. It would be welcome news to see presidential contenders on both sides of the border raise the issue in a constructive manner, though in an election year that hope is likely dim.

Yet, taken together, Hale's assessment and the recent testimony before the U.S. Senate by General James Clapper, our nation's Director of National Intelligence, brings some much needed balance and perspective to the challenges facing Mexico and its impact on the U.S. Here's hoping our elected leaders not only take time to hear it, but act accordingly.

Both note that it's an undisputed fact that most of the violence and killings in Mexico are trafficker-on-trafficker. They roundly reject the assertion by some in the U.S. that we designate Mexico's drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. More than half of the traffickers on Mexico's most wanted list have been captured or killed, including 23 in 2011 alone. And, while drug related homicides in Mexico reached a high in 2010, statistics recently released by the Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice in Mexico showed that the numbers had dropped to approximately 12,000 by last fall.

The progress made by President Felipe Calderon's administration in the past six years has fractured, degraded and debilitated the drug cartels.

This is no time to lose faith in Mexico, or mischaracterize the situation there. I'm optimistic about our allies and partners to the south, and there's every reason for the U.S. to remain steadfast in our support.

Antonio Garza is a former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and is counsel in the Mexico City office of White & Case and a partner in Vianovo. Ambassador Garza is online at www.tonygarza.com , on Facebook.com/AntonioOGarza and on Twitter @aogarza.

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