Mexican Violence
Yesterday’s House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee pushed hard on border security issues connected with Mexico’s drug violence. “This is a war with potentially devastating consequences for the United States,” said Hal Rogers, the ranking Republican. “We have our heads in the sand, I don’t see us taking it seriously.” (See the Reuters report)
Responding to especially intense subcommittee questions, Jayson Ahern, Acting Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection insisted the Secure Border Initiative is on track. (More from Nextgov and Ahern’s prepared remarks)
“The reason you see the escalation in violence is because U.S. and Mexican law enforcement are winning,” Garrison Courtney, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday in a Mexico City interview with the Associated Press. “You are going to see the drug traffickers push back because we are breaking their back. It’s reasonable to assume they are going to try to fight to stay relevant.”
In a detailed Tuesday editorial, the Houston Chronicle seemed to agree with the DEA, “Mexico’s turmoil… is the effect of a government trying to face down the forces of anarchy — not the aftermath of succumbing to it. This is very different from what happens in a ‘failed state,’ where the government loses its legitimacy and power.”
The Chronicle editorial concludes with advice for President Obama, “He needs… to be fearless in articulating two unpopular truths about Mexico’s violence. Narco-crime is a complex, deeply rooted cancer that Mexicans allowed to grow — and that they themselves need to carve back, bloody as that process may be. But this narco-crime feeds on Americans’ drug demand and American gun sales to traffickers. As the world’s most powerful nation, we need to confront these realities and find the will to change them for our own stability.”
The House Homeland Security Committee, Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism, will hold a related hearing on Thursday beginning at 10. It will be webcast.
UPDATE: During the noon hour, eastern time, DHS announced weapons seizures as part of their effort to support Mexican authorities. Reuters also has a story.
