It’s Thursday, Dec. 23, and I’m returning from Juárez, Mexico with volunteers from El Paso who have organized a Christmas festival for a dusty impoverished barrio where they have been providing assistance for years. Tito, a volunteer, opens a huge container of lemonade and hands out paper cups so we can give the lemonade to the dozens of vendors who eke out a living on the bridge connecting our two countries.
A crowd surrounds the battered van. One of the vendors has a baseball cap with the face of Jesús Malverde, the saint of the narcos, embossed on it. The presence of narcotics and narcotics-related violence is everywhere here. In 2009, for example, Juárez (with a population of about 1.5 million) had more murders than the combined total for New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Baltimore and New Orleans.
But there is much more to this border than drugs, violence, environmental degradation, and poverty. There are also these extraordinary volunteers, both American and Mexican, who, undeterred by the violence, continue to help the poor. And there are thousands of Mexicans who endure this grim life with an astonishing resilience. We need to help them instead of just trying to wall Mexico off and forget about it. We need to acknowledge that Mexico’s problem is one that we largely created by our craving for drugs. And we can’t assume that our country is immune from the spread of this violence.
What can be done? Here are some factors to consider.
1. Immigration
Is there any possible compromise in this virulent immigration debate? What about a viable program for those thousands of Mexican workers who simply want to come here temporarily, work in the areas like agriculture and construction that we Americans avoid and then go home to their families. This would give us workers that we need, provide income for Mexican families, and reduce the numbers who come here illegally because they have no alternatives in their home country.
2. NAFTA
The North America Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA was always intended to include a commitment to the U.S.-Mexican border and its environment. That, however, has been almost completely ignored. As a result, the thousands of Mexicans who have been drawn northward in hopes of work in maquiladora plants have found themselves living in the most grotesque conditions. Why isn’t there a program similar to what we had in Colorado during the oil shale boom of the 80s where government and industry worked together to provide the necessary infrastructure?
3. Guns
Look at the bullet holes in the scene of a shootout and you’ll see that these are powerful weapons like the Glock used in Tucson. Finally we seem to be cracking down on the shipment of those weapons to Mexico but the Mexican government has to do its part and develop a much more professional border control system.
4. Work and jobs
What is a young person going to do if he or she lives in a place like Palomas, Nogales or Juárez where there are no jobs? In fact, what is miraculous about these desolate towns is how many people continue to resist being involved in the drug trade.
Why couldn’t we create a joint border cleanup program and offer jobs to some of these young people?.
5. Law enforcement
President Calderón has committed resources to security as evidenced by heavily armed patrols in places like Juárez and Palomas. But the issue is law enforcement, not patrolling. But how can you arrest people (even if everyone seems to know who the narcos are) if you don’t have a viable system of police, courts and prisons? Constructing this will not only require extensive assistance from the United States but a change of culture in Mexico as well.
6. Religion
The role of religion is enormous. On the negative side, many narcos believe they have some protection via their saint, the mythical Jesús Malverde or perhaps La Santa Muerte. The positive side is much more important because it is religious organizations and volunteers that provide what human services exist in these towns. These volunteers are unflinching in the face of danger; it’s hard to imagine what conditions would be like without their work.
7. Legalization or Decriminalization
In 2007, DEA officials in Colombia told us that suppressing drugs was like pushing down on a balloon. “You press down here and it will just pop up somewhere else,” they repeated. Isn’t that exactly what has been happening? Cartels are destroyed in Colombia and the business shifts to Mexico. Or the Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia. In the meantime, we’ve spent about a trillion dollars since the days of Richard Nixon and have more addicts than ever. Isn’t it time, therefore, to take a hard look at either legalization or decriminalization? Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and the results have been very positive.
8. Elections
Mexico’s presidential elections will take place next year and President Calderón’s party will almost certainly lose, in part because many Mexicans believe that his anti drug efforts have unleashed violence to no avail. What then?
9. Columbia
In the late 1990s, the murder rate in Medellín, Colombia was three times what it was in the state of Chihuahua in 2009, yet the Colombian government (with substantial assistance from the United States) broke those cartels and dramatically increased security throughout the country. What are the lessons here for Mexico’s struggle?
10. Political courage
Recently, the woman Mayor of a small Mexican border town was taken hostage and ordered to rehire several corrupt police officers. She refused and the kidnappers eventually relented and released her. Think of what we could accomplish here with that kind of political courage.
Morgan Smith, a former State Representative and Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture has made numerous trips to Ciudad Juárez, Nogales, Palomas and Sasabe, Mexico. He can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
