Mexico and the World
Vol. 3, No 1 (Winter 1998)
http://www.profmex.org/mexicoandtheworld/volume3/1winter98/reasons_mexico.html
Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1997

20 Reasons to Sit Mexico in a Corner;

a Good Whupping Always Draws a Crowd in Congress

Even If It's Not Quite to the Point

Sidney Weintraub

I have been following the congressional debate on overturning President Clinton's decision to certify Mexico as cooperating with the United States' drug war and have figured out the 20 main reasons for the decertification sentiment.

* The PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) has been in power too long.

* So has Bill Clinton.

* The United States has been unable to interdict enough drug shipments once they enter U.S. territory, therefore the problem must be in Mexico.

* Many Mexican police and judicial officials have been murdered by drug dealers.

* U.S. drug corruption is the result of the boldness of Mexican drug dealers.

* There are no home-grown drug cartel leaders in the United States, so Mexicans must be controlling the traffic.

* Thousands of trucks and cars cross over into the United States from Mexico every day and it is impossible to monitor all of them.

* Hundreds of thousands of Mexican nationals cross the border each year without documents and some of them undoubtedly are burros carrying drugs.

* The Mexican Constitution interferes with the extradition of Mexican nationals.

* Officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration are not permitted to carry guns when they are in Mexico.

* U.S. airplanes on drug inspection missions cannot overfly Mexican air space at will.

* President Ernesto Zedillo is an honorable person but powerless when it comes to drug trafficking.

* Even worse, President Zedillo made errors of judgment in choosing his key drug fighters, and one big mistake is too many.

* The international postal service is not reliable; decertification is the only way to send a message.

* Marijuana is grown in Mexico, and only Mexico has the industrial capacity to make amphetamines.

* "The drug trade is one business in which abundant supply creates demand." (Gov. Pete Wilson, March 13, 1997.)

* The law of the land in the United States must be upheld, and this can best be done by punishing Mexico.

* Mexico is not a democracy.

* Hence, only good can come from destabilizing Mexico.

* Besides, who likes the North American Free Trade Agreement anyhow?

It goes without saying that none of the foregoing reasons has anything to do with internal politics in the United States. The congressional move against certification is for Mexico's own good. It hurts us to have to do this more than it hurts them. Som eday they will understand.

Sidney Weintraub holds the William E. Simon Chair in Political, Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington