Fresh Strategy Wanted in Mexico Drug War Hannah Strange - The Australian
go to original July 2, 2012

Four decades after president Richard Nixon declared a US "war on drugs", a blood-stained Mexico is seeking alternatives. As the country grapples with violence on a level that might have shocked Idi Amin, Enrique Pena Nieto has made it clear he regards Washington's strategy as "failed", saying in a recent interview that it was time for a re-evaluation.

It may rattle US nerves, but the Obama administration will be pleased by his assurance that he does not back a regional push to legalise narcotics. He has pledged to shift the security focus to reducing the violence that harms the civil population - homicide, kidnapping and extortion. While he will not abandon the pursuit of cartel leaders, it will no longer remain at the heart of his strategy.

US anti-narcotics officials say they do not expect a major change of tack under a PRI government. Certainly, Mr Pena Nieto's choice of security adviser, the Colombian general Oscar Naranjo, who for years took the fight to the cartels under the US-backed Plan Colombia, suggests he does not plan to diverge too far from the path mapped out by Washington.

The US may also find Mr Pena Nieto a less vocal critic than outgoing President Alvaro Calderon, who, while working closely with the US, has at times delivered denouncements of immigration policies and the flow of weapons across the US border.

Like all Mexican leaders, Mr Pena Nieto is sensitive about sovereignty but he has signalled he wants a more united regional effort on security and economic development.

While the US government is, in principle, keen to bring an end to the war on its doorstep, in these difficult economic times and with resources focused elsewhere, keepers of Washington's purse strings might be wincing.

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