Last Monday President-elect Barack Obama met with Mexico’s President Caderon. Then came the news from a U.S. military study that says Mexico could “collapse” from the wight of “sustained assault” in the drug war.
U.S. military reports are not known for their alarmist tone. But this assessment is unheard of and unusually stark for a North American ally.
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Obama praised Calderon Monday for his work on energy and climate change yesterday.
But neither a bad environment nor energy problems are as likely to bring Mexico to its knees — and impact negatively on the United States — as the drug war, according to the U.S. military.
Most observers have ignored the elephant in the room and on the North American contintent: Mexico is in real trouble.
Mexico and the U.S. are watching as millions of illegal immigrants move from Mexico northward and while drug lords kill off law enforcement and law abiding political leaders, citizens and politicians in Mexico.
Most news stories of the Calderon-Obama meeting failed to mention either the drug issue or major immigration problems until somewhere around paragraph eight….
Related:
Mexico: Obama Can’t Ignore Elephant on the Continent
President-elect Barack Obama meets with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, January 12, 2009.(Larry Downing/Reuters)
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Indiscriminate kidnappings. Nearly daily beheadings. Gangs that mock and kill government agents.
This isn’t Iraq or Pakistan. It’s Mexico, which the U.S. government and a growing number of experts say is becoming one of the world’s biggest security risks.
The prospect that America’s southern neighbor could melt into lawlessness provides an unexpected challenge to Barack Obama‘s new government. In its latest report anticipating possible global security risks, the U.S. Joint Forces Command lumps Mexico and Pakistan together as being at risk of a “rapid and sudden collapse.”
By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer Traci Carl, Associated Press Writer
“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels,” the command said in the report published Nov. 25.
“How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”
Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden told reporters on Friday that that Mexico could rank alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama — perhaps a greater problem than Iraq.
The U.S. Justice Department said last month that Mexican gangs are the “biggest organized crime threat to the United States.” National security adviser Stephen Hadley said last week that the worsening violence threatens Mexico’s very democracy.
Related:
Mexico: “under sustained assault”; Could “collapse” — U.S. Military
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090118/
ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_besieged
