Cover Profile: Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan Mexico Wages All-Out War On Drugs, Flu, Misperceptions by Seth McLaughlin Reports of Mexico’s imminent demise are not only premature, they’re ridiculous. That’s the message from Mexico’s man in Washington, Arturo Sarukhan, who touted his government’s response to the international flu scare as proof that his country is a responsible player on the world stage — one that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. The recent outbreak of the H1N1 virus sent a shiver across the globe and pushed President Felipe Calderón’s government to act swiftly to stop the contagion from spreading. It shut down schools. It shut down restaurants, and it shut down tourist hotspots. It also alerted global health officials, worked with labs in Canada, and sought expert advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the World Health Organization. And after five days of the country being ground to a halt, the Mexican government’s checkbook — already reeling from the global recession — had taken a hit. Last month, the government pegged its losses upward of $2.3 billion, or .05 percent of the 2009 gross domestic product. But, as the Mexican ambassador suggests, what the country lost in revenue, it may have regained in reputation — silencing rumors that Mexico was on the brink of failure. “H1N1 is a clear success story,” Sarukhan said in an interview with The Washington Diplomat. “The Mexican government very quickly and very transparently said, ‘This is going on. We have a new strain. This is what needs to be done.’” Bloodier Battle This “success story” and others — including celebrated judicial reforms passed last year — have been overshadowed by the deteriorating security situation in parts of Mexico, where violent drug trade and corruption has battered the country’s image, economy and quality of life. Mexico’s murderous drug war has pushed Calderón and former President Vicente Fox to suggest that it may be time to explore whether decriminalization of marijuana or small amounts of drugs is an effective way of de-funding the powerful cartels. (The Mexican Congress recently passed related legislation, but Calderón has yet to sign it.) Back in Washington, Sarukhan lives in this political bubble. He diplomatically declined to comment on the issue of decriminalizing marijuana, though he said talking about the matter can’t hurt. “There are people with very strong and compelling arguments on one side and there are people with very strong and compelling arguments on the other. Let’s have a debate. I don’t think that saying, ‘Oh no, that’s taboo,’ is a way of seriously addressing the challenges,” he says. “The end result of the debate may be that, ‘Hell no, it makes no sense to deregulate,’ and on the contrary could create other types of problems. But at least let’s have the debate.” And ever since becoming his country’s point man in the United States more than two years ago, Sarukhan has been vocal on a number of issues. In fact, he’s become one of the most active diplomats in town and a regular on the speaking circuit — from local think tanks to national television networks — where he frequently employs the catchphrase, “like most things in life you need two to tango,” in reference to the symbiotic and all-important U.S.-Mexican relationship. He also often reminds his American audiences that “if we fail, you fail.” An articulate and polished career diplomat, Sarukhan served as consul general of Mexico in New York and as chief of staff to the Mexican secretary of foreign relations. He was also a top foreign policy advisor and international spokesman to Calderón during the presidential campaign and in the transition team. Sarukhan’s own diplomatic tango with Washington officials picked up speed after Calderón’s inauguration in 2006. The new president realized the drug cartels had trampled on the country’s often corrupt and dysfunctional police forces, and he responded by mobilizing the Mexican military — deploying 30,000 troops to hotspots throughout Mexico in an effort to “recapture the territories lost to drug traffickers.” Since then, drug-related killings have jumped from 2,250 in 2007 to as many as 6,200 (including 522 military and law enforcement officials) in 2008. Today, some 45,000 troops patrol drug-wracked areas, mostly along the U.S. border, in a battle that’s taken the lives of roughly 10,700 people since Calderón launched his offensive in 2006. (The cartels didn’t even take a break during the flu shutdown, with 28 people killed in the country’s deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, during the last week of April, along with seven police officers gunned down in Tijuana.) Like Calderón, Sarukhan says the spike in violence — some of which is spilling into major U.S. cities such as Phoenix — and brazenness of the attacks against the military and public officials show that the crackdown is squeezing the cartels. Indeed, Calderón’s push has coincided with a reduction in the purity of cocaine in the United States as well as an increase in street prices, according to U.S. officials. And Sarukhan points out that Mexico has seized more cocaine and bulk cash than any country ever has, breaking all kinds of drug bust records, and that the crackdown has forced Colombian traffickers to ship drugs across the Pacific, rather than across the border, into cities such as Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, Canada. Still, the jury is out, at least from an American perspective. Washington Stops Wagging Its Finger Mexico’s rising body count and rampant violence grabbed Washington’s attention toward the end of the Bush presidency. In December, the Department of Justice released the 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment that declared, “Mexico drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.” And in January, the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., released a report that said Mexico and Pakistan “bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse.” That same month, outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden predicted that violence in Mexico could pose a greater threat than Iran or Iraq, as rumors swirled that America’s southern neighbor could become a failed state. Utter nonsense, says Sarukhan. Since taking office, the ambassador credits President Barack Obama with changing the tone toward Mexico. “I was very struck from the very beginning … of how seized President Obama and his team are regarding the importance of the bilateral relationship with Mexico,” he says. The new message coming from Washington started in January when then President-elect Obama met with Calderón to discuss security, trade and immigration issues. The symbolism of that early meeting was more important than the exchange itself as Calderón became the first foreign leader to meet with Obama following the November election. The diplomatic outreach continued in March when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico and offered the mea culpa that many Mexicans had been waiting to hear: “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said, calling the drug war a “shared responsibility.” The comments reflected reality. Up to an estimated $25 billion worth of illegal drugs comes into the United States through Mexico each year. About 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States is trafficked through Mexico, and Mexico is the country’s largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine. Clinton also pledged to provide Mexican authorities with three Black Hawk helicopters and other equipment promised under the Merida Initiative to help track drug runners, and to deploy an additional 450 law enforcement officers to the U.S. border. A month later, Obama traveled to Mexico, where he reiterated Clinton’s message and voiced support for Calderón’s battle against the cartels. Before those meetings, Sarukhan says Mexico and the United States were stuck in a blame game. “The United States would wag its finger at Mexico and say, ‘Oh, you are a springboard for all drugs that have come into the United States.’ And we would obviously retort, ‘If we’re the springboard, you’re the swimming pool.’” Trading Barbs, and Bullets Across the Border Perhaps nowhere is the issue of blame more apparent than in the debate over guns. In his April visit to Mexico, President Obama said nine out of 10 guns recovered in Mexico have come through the United States. “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border,” Obama said. His comments echoed those of Calderón, Sarukhan, Clinton and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano — all of whom have cited the 90 percent figure as part of their public relations push for more U.S. involvement in the drug war. But many people say the claim is false because it is based only on guns the Mexican government sent to the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) for tracing. ATF officials have told lawmakers that 11,055 guns recovered in Mexico in 2007 and 2008 were submitted to the United States for tracing. Of those, 9,950 (or 90 percent) came from the United States. Next Page

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