Calderon’s Inane Commentary To Congress
May 24, 2010
by Wais Hassan
Mexican President Felipe Calderón addressed major issues in his speech last week to Congress, but he did not offer many solutions to an American public that is growing increasingly concerned about illegal immigration and drug violence along the US-Mexico border. During his speech Calderón suggested an assault weapons ban in America would possibly stem the tide of violence in his country. The Obama administration, including Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, have recently dismissed the idea of an assault weapons’ ban as being an unrealistic policy goal in the current political climate.
Instead of pursing anything as ambitious as an assault weapon’s ban, the Obama administration has basically continued many of the same policies initiated by George W. Bush in his campaign against drugs. Obama has voiced support for the Mérida Initiative, a late term Bush initiative meant to quell drug flow and violence in both countries. In 2008, the Bush administration, through the Mérida Initiative, pledged 1.4 billion dollars over several years to help supply Mexico with high-end equipment like helicopters and surveillance technology. The Obama adminstration has thus far delivered $465 million dollars of the promised $1.4 billion to Mexico’s government.
Calderón gave the Mérida Initiative short shrift in his remarks concerning violence in his country and instead focused mostly on the trafficking of guns into Mexico from the US. Calderón attributed much of the violence in Mexico on U.S. law, particularly the 2nd Amendment and the lack of an assault weapons ban. Calderón alleged that the US was the principal and only significant supplier of firearms to criminals in his country. Calderón repeated a widely propagated myth that the U.S. supplies up to 90 percent of firearms to Mexican drug cartels. The 90 percent figure was originally based on a misunderstanding, but has unfortunately been continually touted by media outlets as fact. Actually, 90 percent of “traced firearms” in Mexico come from the U.S. Criminals, of course, don’t limit themselves to traced weapons. According to Matt Allen, of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), “Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market.” Thoughtful analysts place the actual figure at 20 to 35 percent and argue that Mexico has plenty of other viable channels to import assault weapons. Mexican gun runners can easily obtain weapons from Guatemala, Columbia (the Tijuana Cartel has an alliance with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and Russia.
Calderón called for Americans to close down the border to illegal gun trafficking but his government has done nothing to close the border to illegal immigrant crossings. The porous border serves the Mexican government through illegal migrant remittances to Mexico’s economy, but simultaneously jeopardizes Mexican public safety and democracy. Instead of blaming America’s weapon policy, Calderón should have firmly shouldered the blame for his government’s inability to respond to the drug violence due to its extremely high levels of corruption.
Just last May, the Mexican Federal Army raided numerous local offices throughout the state of Michoacán and arrested dozens of local officials for allegedly cooperating with drug traffickers. The coordinated arrests were hailed as proof of Calderón’s commitment to rooting out pervasive organized crime, but in actuality were merely a sideshow. Many critics including Reginaldo Sandoval, the president of the Labor Party in Michoacán, argue that corruption is much more widespread than Calderón would care to acknowledge. He states that traffickers continue to corrupt politicians, especially in the form of campaign financing. “The power they have is incredible,” says Mr. Sandoval. “Politics here is completely contaminated.”
The most famous component of Calderon’s speech was denouncement of the Arizona law SB 1070. Calderón assailed the Arizona law as “discriminatory,” and said “we will retain our firm rejection to criminalize migration so that people that work and provide things to this nation will be treated as criminals.” Calderón blindly focused on perceived human rights abuses that the Arizona law could inspire rather than the larger and more important issue of what factors drive illegal crossings into the U.S. He failed to mention that in his own country, illegal presence is a felony, requiring a minimum two year jail sentence.
In reality, Mexico is rich with natural resources but its leaders, including Calderón, have failed to enact economic reforms that would broaden the size of the middle class and increase standards of living for the populace. Instead, the country is largely an oligarchy consisting of a very wealthy ruling class and a huge underclass. Despite its wealth of resources like oil and its strong tourist industry, Mexico’s minimum wage stagnates at $4.50 per day; 20% of its population does not have access to safe drinking water or indoor plumbing and 25% live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, the drug war has already claimed 22,700 lives since Calderón took office in 2006. Last year was Mexico’s deadliest year yet as 8,928 people were reported murdered. The violence shows no signs of abating despite Calderón’s commitment of federal army forces to hotspots. Calderón is in no position to critique US policy when his own country is in such shambles.
