Cornyn: U.S. cannot ignore escalating violence in Mexico

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn again called on President Barack Obama’s administration to present a comprehensive plan to address national security threats along the Southwest border.

Referencing a Rio Grande Valley media report that drug cartels have threatened U.S. law enforcement officers, Cornyn told reporters in his weekly teleconference Wednesday that the federal government has not prepared a “comprehensive and credible plan” to help the Mexican government quell the violence that threatens to destabilize the country and spill over into the United States.

The drug cartels are emboldened by Obama’s refusal to take the violence in Mexico seriously, he said in a statement.

 “It’s obvious to any border resident that what is being done is not enough, and local officials are left to deal with the day to day challenges caused by their inaction,” Cornyn said. “The Obama administration can no longer bury its head in the sand and ignore what is going on on our border.”

Cornyn has frequently criticized the Obama administration for a lack of action in fighting the drug cartels.

He said a division of opinion even exists in the president’s administration over whether Mexico’s fight against the drug cartels compares to the Colombian armed conflict.

Obama told a Los Angeles-based Spanish language newspaper in September that the Mexican violence doesn’t compare to Colombia’s fight against drug traffickers two decades ago, Reuters reported. At the height of the Colombian violence, guerrillas financed by the country’s lucrative cocaine trade carried out high profile attacks against the government.

But Obama’s comments contrasted with those of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told a think tank a day earlier that Mexican drug cartels were like the drug-revenue fueled “insurgency” that gripped Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. Drug violence in Colombia only waned when Mexican cartels took over trafficking routes with easier access into the United States.

In August, Obama signed a $600 million border security bill to strengthen the presence of federal law enforcement officers here and conduct counter-narcotics activities along the border. Obama also touted increased drug, cash and weapons seizures during his administration along with several multi-agency law enforcement investigations that resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.

But Cornyn said his own pleas for more law enforcement resources along the border have been ignored by Obama’s administration.

A Cornyn spokeswoman said the senator will look to reintroduce legislation in the new Congress to increase the number of federal law enforcement officers, upgrade outdated ports of entry and crack down on drug smuggling.

More than 29,000 people have died in drug violence across Mexico since President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug smugglers when he took office.

Warring drug cartels recently forced hundreds of residents to evacuate Ciudad Mier, a small town just across the U.S. border from Starr County. And dozens of cartel members were killed in a Matamoros gunfight with the Mexican military this month that left notorious drug kingpin Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen dead.

Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez told KGBT-TV Wednesday that his office has received telephone threats from drug cartel members. Gonzalez, who did not return a call from The Monitor seeking comment Thursday, told the station that Mexico needs help fighting the cartels.

In response to a question by an MSNBC interviewer, Gov. Rick Perry suggested Thursday he is receptive to sending the U.S. military into Mexico to fight in the drug war.

“We have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have, including the military. I think we have the same situation you had in Colombia,” Perry said. “Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them. But the fact of the matter is that these are people who are highly motivated with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth, and I want to see them defeated.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.