Sec. Clinton Leads High-Level Group to Mexico

Updated March 24 - In the wake of the murder of three people with U.S. consular links in Ciudad Juarez, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed up a cabinet-level delegation to Mexico on March 23. Through a bilateral meeting between secretaries from the administrations of U.S. President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderón, the delegation hoped to demonstrate the shared responsibility in the fight against drug cartels. As part of that effort, both sides discussed how to step up anti-trafficking and anti-money-laundering strategies, as well as a new focus on community building. The plan will be a new aspect to the Merida Initiative, a security pact that carves out $1.4 billion in U.S. funds to support counternarcotics efforts in Mexico and Central America. The summit coincided with increased debate about how to stem the bloodshed tied to trafficking in Mexico.

In a March 17 statement, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley noted that the trip headed by Clinton “has been in preparation for several months.” But the timing, within ten days of the three murders that sparked a media frenzy, has put the summit in the spotlight. Last week in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen killed a U.S. consular worker and her husband driving one car and a Mexican man married to another U.S. consular worker traveling in a separate vehicle. Whether the gunmen sought to strike against U.S. government employees remains unclear, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reporting the murders may have been a case of mistaken identity. This week the FBI staged a gang crackdown in El Paso, Texas, as part of investigations.

Top-level officials joining Clinton included Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Obama’s senior counterterrorism advisor John Brennan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael G. Mullen. They met with a Mexican delegation headed by Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa. Ahead of the high-level summit, Secretary Napolitano questioned the efficacy of the Mexican government’s war on drugs. “The presidency of Felipe Calderón has been driven by a philosophy of the will, which has led to the dispatching of military troops in Ciudad Juárez to combat violence,” she said during an MSNBC interview. “But this hasn’t helped.” 

Her remarks drew a rebuke from Mexico’s Secretary of Government Fernando Gómez Mont. Still, the Mexican public appears increasingly wary of the drug war, which has claimed nearly 18,000 lives since Calderón took office in 2006. His administration has deployed 45,000 troops to fight traffickers, reports The Houston Chronicle’s Dudley Althaus. Although Mexicans previously supported his strong stance, he faced protests in Ciudad Juarez after gunmen killed 15 teenagers—none of them connected to organized crime—at a party in the border city last month. A GEA-ISA poll released March 14 shows the president’s approval rating has dropped below 50 percent.

In a new effort to slow the violence plaguing Ciudad Juarez, the Calderón administration unveiled an initiative that supplements the military action with social programs. “We are all Juarez” seeks to boost jobs, education, and drug rehabilitation in the border area.

Tuesday's bilateral talks also incorporated a focus on community programs. As The Christian Science Monitor reports, the latest evolution of the Merida Initiative will include a four-part plan focused not only at clamping down on drug cartels and securing the border, but also strengthening institutions and communities. "We are expanding the Merida Initiative beyond what it was traditionally considered to be, because it is not just about security," said Clinton. "Yes, that is paramount, but it is also about institution building. It is about reaching out to and including communities and civil society, and working together to spur social and economic development."

The Clinton delegation serves as a reminder of the U.S. role in the fight against narcotrafficking. A year ago, the secretary herself acknowledged this fact when she met with Calderón. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Clinton told reporters at the time. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers, and civilians.” The latest International Narcotics Control Strategy Report found that the annual revenue for drug sales in the United States runs between $15 billion to $30 billion, with between $8 billion and $25 billion returned to Mexico by cartels. An Associated Press interactive reports on the number of guns captured in Mexico and traced back to U.S. dealers.

Bilateral meetings continue in the coming months. First Lady Michelle Obama travels to Mexico in April and Calderón visits the White House on May 19.

Learn more:

• Secretary Clinton's remarks at the conclusion of the bilateral meeting.
• U.S. State Department release covering new anti-trafficking and anti-money-laundering plans as part of the Merida Initiative.
• The Woodrow Wilson Center’s U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation Portal
• Council on Foreign Relations interactive timeline of U.S.-Mexico relations.
• Congressional Research Report on the Merida Initiative, exploring funding and policy issues.
• Associated Press interactive on drug cartels.
• In an article for Foreign Policy, Eurasia Group’s Allyson Benton argues that Mexico’s murder rate has dropped over the past decade and that “they remain lower than in the not-so-distant past—and lower than today's violence in other Latin American countries of comparable size and wealth.”