Why Mexico, U.S. can't work together on guns and drugs

[Judi Lynn]

Given how little the U.S. political system seems to care about gun violence in America, it's hard to believe it will do much to help curb the violence in Mexico.

By Eduardo Porter Bloomberg Opinion AUGUST 5, 2023 — 6:00PM

On July 24, the Department of Homeland Security announced that officials from the U.S. and Mexico reinforced their commitment to "joint efforts" to disrupt the trafficking of fentanyl and its precursors across the border from Mexico to the U.S., as well as the flow of weaponry moving in the other direction.

The careful phrasing of the release, however, with 38 words on what the Americans need on the fentanyl end and another 38 on what Mexicans want on weapons in return, underscores the precarious balance between the two nations' interests.

Indeed, it's mostly wishful thinking. U.S. officials must acknowledge that their overriding goal — stoppin

Mg the cross-border flow of illegal narcotics — is only circumstantially related to the Mexican government's objective of reining in the violence that is destabilizing the Mexican state. Those differing objectives lead to different priorities.

Not that long ago, up until the 1980s, Mexico was a country in which drug cartels and a corrupt state could cut deals that took much of the bloodshed out of the business. It was a landscape many Mexicans, in and out of government, now look back on with barely concealed nostalgia.

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