Obama in Mexico: Fire down below

President Obama is heading to Mexico this weekend, for talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. One crucial Obama appointee, however, won’t be there but should be: Gil Kerlikowkse. As Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, he’s tasked with overseeing America’s long-running “War on Drugs.” Yet Kerlikowske has explicitly rejected waging that war. “We’re not at war with people in this country,” he said in his first interview after taking the job–music to the ears of most drug war opponents. But it’s time to examine that statement a little more closely. For if we’re not at war with the people in this country, then who are we at war with? The answer, I fear, may eventually be Mexico.

It’s not as if policymakers, let alone Kerlikowkse, aim for that result. But that may be the consequence of recent actions. Consider: while Kerlikowske has pledged to roll back the worst excesses of the Drug War, he has no intention of pursuing legalization. He’s said that legalization would be tantamount to “waving the White Flag.” That means he’s most likely going to pursue a supply-side strategy, and attempt to cut off the trade at its point of origin. In that regard, Congress has led the way, funding the nascent “Merida Initiative,” or “Plan Mexico,” which supports Mexican efforts to stamp out drug dealers. Merida has so far provided Mexico with high-tech helicopters and training techniques, further militarizing an already deadly conflict.

Mexico’s drug violence, meanwhile, has continued to spiral out of control. More than 16,000 people have died since 2006 in drug-related violence; last month was the deadliest on record, with 866 dying.  According to Reuters, that means this year’s violence is on pace to exceed last year’s. It’s no wonder that, when it came time to appoint an Ambasaddor to Mexico, Obama chose Carlos Pascual, who is an expert on failed states.

None of this has stopped his administration from further militarizing the conflict. The new National Southwest Border Counternarctotics Strategy, released by the administration last spring, calls for reducing the flows of drugs across the border by “utiliz[ing] military-to-military engagement,” and employing the Department of Defense to help coordinate local law enforcement efforts in America. And the Strategy emphasizes the need for upgraded weapons and technology at the border.

Think of this as the outsourcing of the War on Drugs, in which the conflict is taken out of the hands of American law enforcement and placed into the hands of the Mexican government (and border patrol officers). Fortunately, some activists and politicians  have begun to hit the breaks on this turn of events. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has indicated that recent Mexican human rights violations, unearthed by Human Rights Watch, may cause him to prevent further Merida money from being distributed. That’s a start. But it’s not enough. If we’re going to finally end the tragic War on Drugs within our borders, we need to begin to do the same elsewhere.