Monday, February 7, 2005

 

Mexico-U.S. safety tiff shows tip of the iceberg

 

By Kenneth Emmond

 

President Vicente Fox of Mexico said last week: “The problem is over.” Decades ago Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

 

Who is right? Based on past diplomatic tiffs, my money is on the baseball sage.

 

The issue, of course, is the much-ballyhooed January 26 missive of U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza regarding precautions for American tourists in Mexico’s border regions due to increased violence, and the defensive rejoinders by Mexican officials and opportunistic politicians.

 

Later, Garza and Fox agreed that in general Mexico is indeed safe for tourists but they should use common sense, just as they would in Los Angeles or Dallas.

 

But Foreign Affairs Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez wouldn’t let it go.

 

Last Monday he demanded that Garza be “called to account” for his comments. Derbez, by the way, is jockeying for the top position at the Organization of American States. Since the U.S. won’t support him, he’s playing to a Latin American audience.

 

On the same day Garza sent out his warning, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reported to the Chamber of Deputies that the prisoners in effect run no fewer than 13 prisons.

 

Security is far more worrisome for Mexicans than for tourists. And all they get from their politicians is reassurances and bluster.

 

The latest bluster came from the president. Following the murder of six prison guards at the Matamoros federal prison, Fox vowed to fight “the mother of all battles” against drug criminals.

 

Fox noted that drug peddlers and kidnappers are being put behind bars at record rates — more than 35,000 since 2000. Ironically, success is part of the problem: the arrest of drug kingpins triggered bloody wars of succession.

 

It’s not only violent or drug-related crimes that threaten Mexico’s system, but also crime of all kinds. The government really does need to launch a monster battle to get it under control.

 

Who are the baddies, anyway?

 

The drug crowd is moving to make Mexico the drug superhighway from Latin America to the United States. Their threat to the prison system is so strong it brought out the army.

 

Quite apart from the drug scene, it’s been more than a decade since it was safe for women to walk alone in Ciudad Juarez. The body count is in the hundreds, including at least four this year. Yet bluster is all that ever comes of that ongoing disgrace.

 

While drug wars threaten the northern frontier, gangs of Central American thugs, the Mara Salvatruchas, prowl the Guatemala border. They’re not new — they learned their trade years ago in American prisons before being deported — but their incursion into Chiapas is new.

 

Less threatening to life and limb but just as damaging to Mexico’s investment grade credit rating are corporate criminals. Transparency International tries to keep tabs on corruption in government, but corporate corruption is beyond guesswork.

 

Then there are the less obvious, more insidious mafias that operate in most major cities, guarding parked cars and allowing street vendors to ply their trade — while subtracting from municipal tax revenues and sales by legitimate business.

 

None of these crimes could have spiraled out of control were it not for the biggest crime center of all: government.

 

All the way up the chain, from petty clerks to prison guards to police, judges, politicians, and it would seem even a few state governors, government workers on the take are sabotaging Fox’s war on crime. They seek bribes from everybody from the guy who wants his paperwork done quickly to mobsters.

 

The idea Fox had back in 2001 was one of the least heralded but most effective: do government audits of just about everything.

 

It’s a gargantuan task but the work continues: last week the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) reported irregularities at the Mexican Coffee Board of almost a billion pesos (about US$90 million). The victims: small coffee growers.

 

No one knows when it will be possible to monitor what goes on in the courts, where closed-door sessions are often followed by mysterious staying of charges for “lack of evidence.” Justice might be done, but justice seen to be done is in the future.

 

While it’s safe for foreigners to walk the streets and enjoy the beaches, the enemies of crime face a mountain of work.

 

Drug wars are the tip of the security iceberg. As for achieving accountability in government and security for Mexicans, as Yogi says — it ain’t over till it’s over. 

 

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Kenneth Emmond, an economist, market consultant and journalist who has lived in Mexico since 1995, is also a columnist with MexiData.info.  He can be reached via e-mail at Kemmond00@yahoo.com.