Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico, spoke to the Los Angeles Times for more than an hour during a visit to California in November. He was eager to discuss the bicentennial celebrations of US-Mexico diplomacy. We really wanted to talk about the border. The pas de deux had many platitudes, some tense moments, and one number I can’t shake: 13,000.
That was Salazar’s estimate of the number of Mexicans studying at our universities at the time. Many of us were surprised to hear it was so low. We have been friends with Mexico for 200 years, and It is all our diplomacy could muster? By comparison, our geopolitical adversary China had over 300,000 on our campuses.
The reason for the split between the two nations is obvious: Chinese students contribute an estimated $15 billion to the economy each year. Mexico’s economy is robust – the 15th largest in the world – but China is second only to the US. Apparently the number is more important than these 200 years.
And therein lies the catch.
Instead of sending 300,000 students to the US like China, Mexico is being trampled by these two giants: China routes fentanyl to the US market through Mexico, and the US exports weapons to Mexico so the cartels can protect their product. It’s an ugly illegal trade triangle and Mexico gets the worst end of every deal.
And yet, as drugs and guns claim lives on both sides of the US southern border, Mexico is being punished for not doing more. More what exactly? President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had his own criticism of Americans this month: “Why don’t you take care of your youth? Why don’t you address the serious problem of social decline? Why not [you] reduce the steady increase in drug use?”
The comments came after Mexican authorities rescued the two Americans kidnapped by members of a drug cartel in the state of Tamaulipas earlier this month. Two more died.
Does López Obrador sound a bit harsh?
He asks sensible questions. However, American politicians have no good answers to offer.
Instead, calls for US military intervention grew in some conservative circles after the kidnappings, for there are those who rarely see a problem that endless war cannot exacerbate. This follows a call from 21 attorneys general for President Biden to designate the cartels as terrorist organizations — sometimes a useful tool to cut funding, but also a dangerous pretext for escalation and military intervention.
And can you imagine the US sending troops to Mexico? They would be faced with a large arsenal of American-made weapons.
It’s not Mexico’s fault. The nation has no equivalent to the second amendment. About 50 gun licenses are issued each year. There is only one shop in all of Mexico where it is legal to buy a gun, and it is controlled by the military. Legal gun sales in Mexico are not the problem.
However, it is estimated that more than 200,000 guns are smuggled from the United States to Mexico each year. The US arms industry has been arming Mexican drug cartels for as long as Mexican drug cartels have existed.
Up to 90% of guns used and prosecuted in crimes in Mexico appear to have originated in the US, mainly Arizona and Texas. The proliferation of guns has made mass shootings common at home — last year was the deadliest yet — and now our pastime has been exported to Mexico.
The US is the largest client running Mexican cartels. We are the main supplier of the weapons that make them so deadly. That’s the relationship we’ve built with Mexico. It’s a sad reality, made clear only by the ambassador’s numbers from our November conversation: 300,000 students from China, 13,000 from Mexico.
Chinese students benefit from the American education system because they pay top dollars. Meanwhile, our neighbors, with whom the US is so proud to have maintained diplomatic relations for 200 years, are scarcely represented in educational exchanges that could benefit both sides of the border.
This dynamic reveals the inherent flaw in our approach to foreign policy. We expect other nations to be the ideological purists we lack the courage to be. And every now and then a world leader reminds us of our hypocrisy.
Sometimes it comes from an enemy like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently exposed America’s own social problems after criticizing Biden.
Sometimes it’s a friend like López Obrador.
We supply most of the weapons in the world. We have long been the most prolific drug users in the world. And what do we do? Blame one of our oldest friends for the trouble we’ve caused.
Source: LA Times
Roger Stone is an author and opinion journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He is known for his controversial and thought-provoking views on a variety of topics, and has a talent for engaging readers with his writing.
