I have just returned from an eventful two days in Colorado and Texas – with a significant focus on Mexico, and the U.S. – Mexican border.

The purpose of the trip was to begin to understand the incredibly complex issues surrounding our southern border; and how these issues are deeply connected to the larger region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

With a small group of advisors and strategic thinkers – including half-a-dozen former Ambassadors to the region – I began by spending a day with the outstanding staff of U.S. Northern Command, led by my good friend and colleague, Air Force General Gene Renuart. 

Gene’s team has the lead on military-to-military connections with Mexico, as well as major national responsibilities for homeland defense.  Positioned in Colorado Springs and part of a dual-command structure with Canada, the Northern Command team was very welcoming and helped us learn more about the border and Mexico in the broad context of Latin America and the Caribbean.  They are doing an excellent job of managing military-to-military contacts and supporting overall interagency efforts with Mexico.

We then moved on to El Paso, Texas and spent time on the border itself.  Border Patrol Chief Vic Manjarrez, one of the top leaders in U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, escorted our group.  His team, headquartered in El Paso, controls 300 + miles of U.S. border with Mexico.  Our group was able to “walk the ground” and look at the border fence at the corner of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.  We learned about the technology, tactics, and procedures employed by the Border Patrol in their challenging, dangerous, and important mission.  Interestingly, only about one third of the entire U.S. border with Mexico will ultimately be fenced.

The time we spent with the Border Patrol agents was a good reminder of the excellent cooperation between the Department of Defense and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in stopping narcotics headed to this nation.  The CBP flies its air wing aggressively, with 7300 flight hours in 2008 alone, leading to the interdiction of over 70 tons of cocaine, valued at $6 billion or more.  They also fly the sophisticated Predator unmanned aerial vehicle with excellent results.  All of this is done in full cooperation with Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force in Key West, Florida.

The final stop on our journey was a series of in-depth briefings from the professionals at the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind facility run by my friend Art Doty, one of the top intelligence officers in the Drug Enforcement Administration.  An interagency team of well over 300 professionals from 15 different agencies, including the Department of Defense, operates this facility.  Their focus is drug interdiction and other illicit trafficking, and the facility is named for a slain DEA agent, Kiki Camarena, who died in the line of duty in 1985, tortured and murdered in Mexico.

When considering the border and the current situation in Mexico, it is clear that a high level of U.S. cooperation with our Mexican friends and partners is necessary.  More than 5,000 drug related murders occurred in the northern tier of Mexico in 2008, roughly double the total in 2007.  President Calderon and Mexican security forces continue to crack down on the drug cartels – Tijuana, Juarez, Sinola, and Gulf – that collectively move hundreds of tons of illegal drugs into the United States and that are destroying the social fabric of parts of Mexico.

It is also clear that there are significant connections between the situation in Mexico and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean.  In addition to being one of the largest two economies and populations south of the USA (along with Brazil), Mexico’s economy is interwoven throughout the region.  The U.S. cannot allow Mexican efforts to fail, and Northern Command, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the entire interagency team is working hard to support them, with help from our Congress – which has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to the efforts as part of the Merida Initiative.

Clearly, the challenges of the border are significant; but with hard work, honest dialogue, sufficient resources and long-term commitment, the region can be prosperous and secure, reflecting the excellent overall state of relations between the U.S. and Mexico.  The warm friendship of our two nations is a crucial element in the Americas today.