Violence in Mexico

USA Today July 30, 2009

In a novel attempt to lure back wary tourists scared off by high crime rates and last spring's swine flu outbreak, the Mexico City government is offering visitors free health and travel insurance through December.

San Francisco Chronicle May 2009

The paradox of Mexico's plight is that its government has been doing everything by the book, from exemplary economic policy to cracking down on drug cartels to reacting quickly and vigorously to the first clusters of flu cases.

"First there's the economic crisis, second there's the whole insecurity situation as a result of the drug-related crime, now third you have this epidemic compounding an already bad impact on the economy," said Nora Lustig, a Mexico expert at George Washington University and the Center for Global Development. "It means the average Mexican is going to be in a pretty horrible situation with not many other places to go."

The biggest traditional safety valve - a job in the United States - is all but closed by the U.S. recession. For the past year, illegal immigration from Mexico has been flat, according estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center.

View From The Bottom

The Mexican people need work, not hand-outs. The economy is in trouble and will remain in trouble until the drug violence stops. When you and your children are hungry, you simply want the opportunity to earn enough money to put some food on the table. The people are so beaten down that many would accept a truce with drug gangs. Many talk about the hopelessness of changing the politicians. They shrug when talking about graft, corruption and gangs. They simply want to eat.

When you see it, when you talk with parents skipping meals so their children have something to eat, you empathize.

However, accepting corruption, gang-rule, and injustice is not in anyone's long term interest. It is especially not in the interest of the United States. If the gangs win, and they may, the violence will continue to reach across out border and will spread.

You kill weeds at their roots. We must help Mexico to rebuild its economy, win the war against the drug gangs, and do everything possible to make our neighbor an economic miracle.

I walk the streets of Texas border-cities and Mexican border-cities. This is not a theory or an academic study. This is the life on our streets. Houston, Austin, Dallas and Baltimore are all affected by the gangs of Mexico.

Changing Mexico is a matter of choice. We, in the United States, have the ability and means to give the Mexican people the edge they need.