US tightens up violent Mexican border

The United States unveiled Tuesday a beefed-up, multiagency security plan for the US-Mexico border that reflects President Obama's recognition of the "two-way" street responsible for rising drug violence. The plan allows Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to emphasize cooperative action when she visits the embattled southern neighbor Wednesday.

The border security policy includes the formation of a new FBI-directed Southwest Intelligence Group, relocating 100 federal agents to the border to curtail gun trafficking, and sending more federal agents to Mexico to coordinate counternarcotics operations. But it does not endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry's call for National Guard troops on the border.

Mexico's drug war is spreading north. US officials say Mexican drug cartels now operate in some 200 American cities. The new plan – which combines both the $1.4 billion, multiyear antidrug plan Congress approved last year (the Merida Initiative), and new money from this year's stimulus – is designed to increase cooperation with Mexico.

The new initiative – coordinated by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and announced by her and senior State Department and Justice officials in a White House briefing – also underscores the growing concerns in US border states, and in Washington, over signs of spillover violence. Last year, more than 6,000 people were killed in Mexico's drug war. It's no accident that one of Homeland Security's border-focused efforts is called Operation Firewall.

Yet the new plan Secretary Clinton will explain to her Mexican counterparts also reflects a new recognition from the Obama administration of "co-responsibility" for drug-related violence and lawlessness. President Obama suggested this perspective when he spoke earlier this month of a "two-way situation" affecting the border. "The drugs are coming north; we're sending funds [laundered drug money] and guns south," he told reporters.

New era of co-responsibility?

The recognition of co-responsibility is both a welcome shift in US thinking for Mexico, and a reflection of reality, border security analysts say. "Both sides are recognizing more and more that there is no way Mexico can do this without the US contributing significantly," says Roderic Ai Camp, a Mexico expert at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. "US demand, arms shipments back to Mexico, laundered money back to Mexico, all of those factors contribute significantly to the success of drug cartels."

Some experts note that this administration's emphasis on cross-border cooperation is not new. The US has supported President Felipe Calderón's get-tough approach to drug cartels, including the deployments of thousands of troops across the country. The Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion plan to help Mexico and Central America combat drug infiltration, was passed last year.

What strikes some about the Obama initiative is that it reflects not just the gravity of Mexico's situation, but in fact an increasingly mature binational relationship. If the US can undertake an ambitious security initiative with multiple levels of law-enforcement cooperation, it's because there is a state and official players to work with, says Michael Shifter, vice-president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

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