The U.S. Army

Welcome Mr. Gates

“The U.S. offers its army to Mexico to fight narco-trafficking,” states the principal news of The Chronicle last Monday. When has that service been volunteered here? During the course of the interview for NBC, Secretary of Defense of the Obama administration Robert Gates, who curiously served under the Bush administration, said that they are ready to help Mexico more than they have in the past. “Old prejudices against the military cooperation between both countries have been put aside,” he added.

One may say that they are stuck in the past, but many Mexicans still reserve old prejudices against the actions and intentions of the North American army whose dreadful fame on a global scale is not gratuitous, nor did it sprout spontaneously in one generation. It is the result of innumerable bitter experiences all over the world.

The situation regarding the shared border is of high risk. The violence of organized bands of crime dedicated fundamentally, but not exclusively, to drug activity is out of control. It is difficult to even be up-to-date on the executions. The situation is dramatic and we do not gain anything by denying its existence. But before opening the doors to a foreign army, it is important to know the level of responsibility of the North Americans to arrive at this state of deterioration. It would not be the first time that they have created a problem and later volunteered to solve it, sending the marine infantry out first.

The joint responsibility of the U.S. is in plain view. First of all, they are the drug addicts, the ones who consume the drugs that the Mexican cartels are selling. Tons of narcotics – marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and psychotropic pills – circulate daily through the streets and freeways of the American Union. Everyone is aware of this, including Barack Obama. Drugs pass in industrial quantities to the North American territory because they allow them to enter. There is no turning the page on this one. We should also lay the blame on ‘gringos,’ the intimidating fire power of the Mexican gunmen that have at their disposal in Texas and Arizona all the firearms that money can buy. Firearms that they use to kill our soldiers and police officers. Has the North American government shown a real commitment to eradicating the demand for drugs and detaining the traffic of arms? Clearly not. Not to mention it incurs the money of the narco business that happily circulates through the financial circuits of the neighboring country.

North Squad in Monterrey

The fact is that the Pentagon strategists are not interested in the subject of drugs. They are focused on the issue of national security. What they are interested in is taking advantage of the weaknesses of the Mexican state, exposing it to the world as the failed organism of the violence of drug dealers and assuming control to shape a preventive area of contention in its southern border. They want to set up barracks in the North Squad in Tijuana, Juarez, Reynosa, and why not, also in Monterrey, that would have the facade of anti-narcotic offices, but the real purpose would be to protect the United States from their multiple international enemies.

Generating suspicion that they will not be able to release the few resources promised in the Merida Plan, they already want us to give loads. Why don’t we leave the issue of the marines for later and begin with the other aspects, such as the consumption of drugs, the selling of arms, and money laundering. Can they explain to us how it is possible that drugs enter their territory and reach counties in the most remote regions of such states as Alaska? North American soldiers already operate in Colombia, which has not stopped the flow of cocaine from there to Mexico; is the same is going to happen when their initiatives take place in, let’s say, Matamoros?

Bi-national police

I propose that the plan presented by current Secretary of Agriculture Alberto Cardenas, during the last internal campaign of PAN for presidency, is taken, which deals with the formation of a bi-national police force. A body that works hand-in-hand alongside the length of the border, each at his own side of the river, but with a permanent exchange of information in real time. The strength of the bi-national police force would not be the arms, but rather the latest intensive technology used to avoid the passing of drugs, money, and arms and succeed in capturing hired assassins. It would be feasible to organize it in the short term when there exists a real interest in putting an end to drug trafficking. But this, unfortunately, is not the point.