The killing of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Saturday, has elevated concerns of "spillover violence" from drug-related crime into the U.S. Texas Governor Rick Perry placed state law enforcement on a heightened alert and called for more troops along the border. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that, while there has not yet been spillover violence, "it is a risk." This has the country all abuzz, but they are missing the point. There is already plenty of spillover violence, only it is on the Mexican side of the border.
American lawmakers who look disapprovingly at the narco-violence that has beset Mexico need to own up in their rhetoric to their country's role in it. Mexico, because of President Felipe Calderon's courageous fight with international drug cartels, is being destabilized by organizations that act as a service industry, of sorts, for American (and Canadian) consumers of illicit drugs, and whose profits are only enhanced by the U.S "war on drugs." What is more, these powerful cartels are often armed with guns and other weapons that flow south from the U.S. into Mexico. It is not enough to sound alarms about the frightening levels of violence "down there" and to act as if it were someone else's problem, which other North Americans must be insulated from. It's time to take some ownership.
The U.S. is already doing so in concrete terms, such as by sending more than $1-billion in aid in recent years to support the efforts of Mexico's army, through improved equipment and surveillance technology. The U.S. needs to substantially increase its commitment, but that should not include dispatching U.S. agents or security personnel into Mexico itself, a move that would remind Mexicans of past U.S. intrusions on the country's sovereignty and erode support for Mr. Calderon. American officials also have a duty to provide a more honest assessment of the origins of the violence, and not to provoke hysteria by raising the spectre of spillover on the U.S. side, for which there is no evidence.
Mexico's troubles are serious, but they reflect some success - the immense pressure that Mr. Calderon's use of the country's military has brought to bear on the drug cartels, which are warring with each other and are lashing out. U.S. lawmakers, and officials in Canada as well, need to do everything they can to bolster the President's efforts, and that includes the application of some intellectual honesty to the problem.