Mexico’s federal police display seized drugs and weapons in Tijuana in December 2008.

Mexican Drug Violence a Shared Regional Challenge remarks by Napolitano, Steinberg and Ogden Justice Department announcement

25 March 2009

(Security cooperation, demand reduction key to new plan, say officials)

Washington — The Obama administration has announced a comprehensive new strategy to expand its partnership with Mexico to confront and dismantle the violent drug trafficking cartels that pose a threat to the two neighbors and the wider region.  

“We are taking steps on both sides of the border, working with our Mexican partners, to support the Mexican government’s campaign against the violent cartels and to reduce contraband in both directions across the border,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in a March 24 statement.

The new plan, introduced at the White House by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, comes ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s travel to Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico, March 24 to open a series of consultations on the ongoing battle against drug cartels.

Drug trafficking and criminal organizations in the region have grown in size and strength over the last decade, fueled by a northward flow of illegal drugs and a southward flow of money and weapons. The new plan brings resources and expertise from across the U.S. government and focuses them on strengthening efforts to close the pipeline in both directions, say officials.

Drug-related murders and kidnappings increased significantly since Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006 and vowed to fight cartels and corruption. The drug gangs, already warring with each other for control of key smuggling routes along the U.S.-Mexico border, have responded to the government’s efforts with unprecedented violence that has claimed more than 6,000 lives in 2008 — including 550 Mexican police and government officials, Napolitano said.

Congress has approved $700 million in aid this year under the Mérida Initiative — a $1.4 billion multiyear partnership launched in 2007 aimed at delivering training and equipment to counternarcotics teams and other law enforcement officers, as well as technical assistance to help strengthen the court system in Mexico and other partner countries in Central America and the Caribbean.

Major Mérida purchases will include five new helicopters for the Mexican army and air force, a surveillance plane for its navy, equipment and training for Mexican border guards, support for implementing Mexico’s new legal system and help for Mexican authorities as they develop a witness protection program. (See “Mexican Drug Violence a Shared Regional Challenge.”)  

The Department of Homeland Security will double its law enforcement presence in the border region, Napolitano said, as well as expand its contacts with Mexican law enforcement. The department will also accelerate efforts to deploy new technologies such as biometric identification and mobile X-ray units to widen screening of rail and auto traffic to interdict illegal weapons, laundered drug money and illicit drugs.

The Justice Department, working in partnership with Mexican authorities, already has recorded significant gains against the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, Ogden said, arresting more than 750 individuals linked to trafficking, and seizing $59 million in cartel assets, hundreds of firearms, and nearly 25,000 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine. Several other components of the department, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will expand operations targeting the traffickers to support Mexico’s efforts to dismantle the cartels.

Reducing domestic demand for illegal drugs is also a key component of the new U.S. strategy, according to the White House, which states that $5 billion was committed for initiatives to reduce illicit drug use in 2008. The Obama administration also will seek to integrate substance abuse services into its proposal for a new national health care system. The Obama White House is also advocating a $63 million expansion of treatment capacity though drug courts, which would bring judicial and law enforcement efforts together with social services to help nonviolent offenders overcome drug addiction and rejoin society.

In addition to counternarcotics cooperation, Mexico’s growing global role as a member of the U.N. Security Council and the G20 group of developed and emerging economies also will be at the top of Clinton’s agenda when she visits Mexico, said Steinberg, along with Mexico’s efforts on climate change. The talks will set the stage for Obama’s April 16–17 visit to Mexico City ahead of his appearance at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.  

“The secretary's trip is part of this broader effort by the administration, from the beginning, to demonstrate that we really see this as a critical partnership,” Steinberg said.

A transcript of remarks by Napolitano, Steinberg and Ogden and the text of a Justice Department announcement on resources to battle the Mexican cartels are available on America.gov.