Obama takes on the Mexican drug cartels

Thursday, March 12. As if he doesn't have enough domestic issues to deal with, Barack Obama is being forced to confront the escalating drugs war in Mexico that threatens to spill across the US border. In interviews with regional newspapers yesterday, the President revealed that he had contemplated the idea of sending an armed American force to patrol the border.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," said Obama, who also praised Mexico's President Felipe Calderon for "taking some extraordinary risks under extraordinary pressure to deal with the drug cartels".

This follows a request from Texas governor Rick Perry for 1,000 US troops to be be sent to the Mexican border to bolster what he says are inadequate security arrangements. He describes the situation on the border as "a state of war".

The drug cartels have been responsible for more than 10,000 deaths since 2001 and other members of the Obama administration have already made it clear Obama wants to help the Mexican government. Attorney General Eric Holder has described the cartels as "a national security threat," and warned: "We simply can't afford to let down our guard". Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the drug violence in Mexico is "something that deserves our utmost attention right now".

Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden announced that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske would become the new administration's 'drugs tzar' – a cabinet level position under George Bush but not given the same high status under Obama. "Violent drug trafficking organisations are threatening both the United States and Mexican communities," said Biden.

The White House has signalled its intent just as a fugitive Mexican drugs baron makes it onto the new Forbes rich list. The 54-year-old Joaquin Guzman Loera, (pictured), known as 'Shorty', heads the Sinaloa Cartel. He famously escaped from a Mexican jail in 2001 by hiding in a laundry cart, just days before he was due to be extradited to the States. There is still a $5m US government reward out for his capture, a paltry sum compared to Guzman's own wealth, which Forbes estimates at $1bn. He appears on the rich list at number 701, with his business listed as "shipping".

An editorial this week in USA Today said that a large part of the problem is that American drug users don't associate their actions with the situation in Mexico. "For Americans who live far from the border, the fighting seems remote, something happening down there," says the paper, "a reason to think twice about a spring break trip to Cancun or Acapulco, maybe, but little more...The Mexicans alone can't solve this problem. If Americans don't work out a way to stop making it worse, Mexico's crisis will soon be our own."

FIRST POSTED MARCH 12, 2009