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American Society for
Public Administration

COMMENTARY

Mexico’s Perfect Storm: Using the Narcotrafico Threat to Build Governance Capacity in the U.S. and Mexico
By Don Klingner

It’s easy to see the impact of “drug wars” on daily life when you travel around Mexico. TV and newspapers are full of stories about kidnappings, assaults and murders, especially in hard-hit cities by the U.S. border like Ciudad Juarez and Nogales or in the major south-north drug shipment corridors along both coasts. Army trucks filled with troops masked to reduce the risk of family reprisals man highway checkpoints. Billboards threaten those convicted of kidnap for ransom with 70 years in prison. Even in relatively safe areas, people are anxious about the threat the “narcotrafico” presents to Mexico’s traditional family structure, values and sense of community. All accept that the vicious circle represented by the flow of guns and money south from the US to Mexico, and of drugs north from Mexico to the U.S., is a “perfect storm.”

Being a frequent visitor from the U.S. doesn’t help. At least until recently, most Mexicans have considered themselves innocent bystanders, hostages to an insatiable U.S. demand. Now, even as indisputable evidence of active Mexican involvement in drug trafficking mounts and its fundamental effects on Mexican society seem irrefutable, recent disclosures seem to confirm the U.S. government’s active complicity (and culpability) in gun-running and money-laundering. “Fast and Furious” was designed to allow the US Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (AFTE) to trace the flow of illegal weapons to Mexican cartels; a similar US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) operation reportedly was designed to allow agents to trace the flow of money (details here).

U.S. and Mexican Perspectives

Within the U.S., perspectives on Mexico tend to reflect the negative consequences of Mexican immigration – legal and illegal – on public education, health and criminal justice systems. Many citizens, including naturalized immigrants, have long decried illegal immigration and our lack of a coherent national immigration policy. Conservatives tend to resist the influx of unassimilated foreigners and frequently appeal for “English-only” to reduce the perceived underlying effects on U.S. culture, language and values. Though they accept that immigration of younger workers is needed to maintain economic growth, they may also seek stricter controls over immigration to keep out those who might take away American jobs.

Because our perspective on Mexico reflects our preoccupation with Mexican immigration, we in the U.S. are relatively less informed about how Mexicans view us, and why:
•  Mexicans generally think the U.S. is prejudiced against them and their country. The U.S. is Mexico’s largest trading partner, and Mexico is our third largest (after China and Canada). Despite this close economic interdependence, Mexicans generally feel that U.S. foreign policy toward Mexico oscillates between extremes (neglect and intervention), in reactionary and short-sighted ways.  They think our inability to deal honestly and openly with the U.S. economy’s demand for Mexican workers is hypocritical. They see the border fence as an expression of this prejudice: given that all of the 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. from Canada, what national security objective justifies fencing the border between the U.S. and Mexico?
•  Mexicans have always moved back and forth across the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo. Until 1848, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado were part of Mexico (Nueva España). Historically, people have always moved back and forth across the border, depending on comparative economic conditions. Since 2007, because the Mexican economy has grown much faster than the U.S.’s, the net flow of migrants (legal or illegal) and remittance money has been back to Mexico from the U.S. Unfortunately, in contrast with the treaties underlying the European Union, the landmark North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) agreement (1994) covers the movement of goods but not people within Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
•  Mexicans view U.S. immigration based on their own economic and social priorities. The fence, border security and the costs and risks associated with human trafficking lead many to remain in Mexico. In many villages, the flight of working-age men and women to the U.S. and larger cities in Mexico in search of work has disrupted established systems of agriculture, rural education, village governance and economic development.
•  Mexico has always had a love-hate relationship with the U.S.: A century ago, former Mexican president Porfirio Diaz voiced the one-liner more recently attributed to Carlos Fuentes: "Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States."

Three Types of Cooperation

Yet drug trafficking and violence, on top of these existing perceptions and conditions, create an unrecognized opportunity to build relationships with Mexican counterparts (state, local, national and NGOs) for the long term, because they represent a shared threat to public administrative capacity on both sides of the border. Three types of cooperation seem worth strengthening:
•  Strategic Research Exchanges. U.S. and Mexican universities should maintain and improve relationships with Mexican counterparts through visiting scholar exchanges, reciprocal scholarships, and joint degree programs. For several years, under the leadership of Juan de Dios Pineda, Cheo Torres and President David Schmidly, the University of New Mexico has pursued strategic relationships with Mexico and Latin America through the Lat-Net program. This includes a post-doctoral faculty exchange program with Mexican universities and jointly sponsored conferences. In the U.S., the Fulbright-Garcia Robles program has long provided funding for U.S. citizens to study in Mexico. In Mexico, CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencias y Technologias) sponsors programs and scholarships for international cooperation. Finally, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Henry Luce Foundation funds programs that enable eight US universities, including the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, to combine strategic international research and student exchanges.

•  Education and Training through Professional Associations. Professional associations build administrative capacity organizations and individuals by increasing individual and organizational competence. In the U.S., these include the American Management Association (AMA – including a public and nonprofit division), the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the American Planning Association (APA), the Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM), the American Political Science Association’s (APSA’s) Public Administration Section, the Association for Research in Non-Profit and Volunteer Associations (ARNOVA), the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR). In Mexico, the National Public Administration Institute (INAP) and its 31 state-level affiliates provide free courses, distance learning options and degree programs.

•  ASPA’s Global Good Governance Network. The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) has been pursuing a "going global" strategy since 2006. These efforts are resulting in the establishment of a global "good governance" Internet portal. Through this portal, practitioners around the world can share information about promising “smart practice” innovations.

So let’s accept that a crisis is too good to waste, and use the threat caused in Mexico and the U.S. by drug trafficking to build long-term governance capacity on both sides of our shared border.

Donald Klingner is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Affairs of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, former president of the American Society for Public Administration, current president of the ASPA International Chapter, a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, co-author of Public Personnel Management (6th edition 2010), also published in Spanish and Chinese. He has worked as a consultant for the United Nations, the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank in building public management capacity. E-mail: Donald.Klingner@gmail.com