The United States has long had an interest in nation-building. Aside from our military involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, we’re also firing drones into Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know that the CIA is in the process of establishing secret drone bases in places like Djibouti, Ethiopia and the Seychelles Islands. In addition to close alliances with Israel and Turkey, the United States has formed a sphere of influence around Iran and guaranteed that it has an impact on the development and repercussions of the Arab Spring—for better or worse.
The incentives are obvious: When we are able to influence the development or redevelopment of newly reformed governments we can support leaders and initiatives that aid American interests. It worked well with the Marshall Plan, not so well in Vietnam and has had mixed results in the Middle East. And while there may still be some inkling of moral initiative to spread freedom and democracy, where and how we attempt to exert our influence should be analyzed primarily as strategic. If we really cared about spreading the American ideal we would currently be putting far more diplomatic pressure on the extremely oppressive Syrian regime.
Yet, for all our efforts to influence nation building in the Middle East, there has been comparatively much less effort to intervene in a nation much closer to home—Mexico.
Despite the fact that immigration is an enormous political and economic issue in America, there has been little recognition that our neighbor to the south is quickly becoming a failed state. Indeed, debate in the United States has been far more focused on the domestic repercussions rather than the root of the problem. Just last September, highway traffic was temporarily blocked in Boca del Rio, Mexico, when drug cartel gunmen unloaded 35 dead bodies into the street. Just a few days later, five severed heads were found in a primary school in Acapulco.
In the last four years nearly 30,000 people have died in the regional battles between Mexican drug cartels—and that’s just the ones who have been discovered. Mexico’s top federal policeman Genaro Garcia Luna estimated that drug kingpins invest over $100 million a month into corrupting local and state-level policeman in the country. Mexico’s once-booming oil export rates have dwindled since 2006, spring break tourism dropped 93 percent from 2010-’11 and in that same period 67 percent of Mexican businesses told the Mexican Chamber of Commerce that they felt less safe doing business.
Incredibly, despite the widespread political corruption Mexico has recently enjoyed significant economic growth—5.5 percent in 2010 with similar forecasts for 2011—thanks in large part to its comparative advantage in car engine production and increased export of electronics. And while economic growth has encouraged an increasing proportion of Mexicans to relocate to central urban cities, an enormous amount still seek refuge in the United States to escape the rapid increase in violence between the country’s eight large drug organizations.
We have long felt these trends domestically. California’s recent passage of the “Dream Act” allows illegal immigrants to access state financial aid at public universities and junior college—just one of many controversial legislative debates on immigration in the United States. Herman Cain recently joked that he would build an electric fence along the Mexico-U.S. border with alligators and a moat if elected. Putting aside these debates for the moment, everyone can agree mass Mexican immigration, and the enormous amount of remittance aid sent back to immigrants’ families, is, in part, a response to the lack of opportunity and political instability in Mexico. Thus the increase in drug cartel wars encourages illegal immigration by failing to provide safety and security in Mexico. In addition, the influx of illegal drugs and the violence that accompanies it spills over into the United States. In the long-term, a politically corrupt neighbor has the potential to undermine U.S. interests by making trade agreements unreliable.
So why not nation build in Mexico? In 2012 USAID will give just over $60 million in aid to Mexico, but when political institutions are deeply corrupt, and drug cartels give almost twice that amount to Mexican officials every month, our aid is either misused or ineffective. And while the United States military has started to help train Mexican police, they have done little to curb the power of drug cartels in the country.
Our first and most obvious step is to legalize marijuana. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that the Mexican earnings from drug sales is upwards of $48 billion, half of which is expected to come from cannabis. Aside from arguments about personal liberty and the harm of marijuana, it would create a large legitimate market in the United States and eradicate the cartel’s oligopoly on its distribution. Legalizing marijuana is easier said than done, yet we may actually be doing a disservice to Mexico by maintaining its illegality. This is, however, no wholesale solution—90 percent of cocaine in America flows through Mexico and its export of crystal methamphetamine is an enormous source of income that won’t be legalized in the United States any time soon.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency does what it can to curb the trade within the United States, but it can do little to improve conditions in Mexico. If we have the funds to establish military bases and carry out drone attacks in a number of Middle Eastern countries, one would assume we have the capability to significantly aid the training and deployment of police in nearby Mexico. Sending American troops is out of the question politically, but we have the resources to train Mexican troops and police units on a wider scale.
No one solution is all-encompassing, and eventually political institutions in Mexico will have to eradicate corruption and put power back in the hands of its legitimate government in order to have long-term success. But with the resources we have, and the economic incentives an eradicated drug trade might offer, perhaps it’s time for the United States to consider nation-building closer to home.
Miles Kellerman is a junior majoring in political science. Send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
