Escalating War

Not Afghanistan, Mexico. Recently President Calderon sent in the army to carry on a fight that has totally gotten beyond the capacity of police to manage. For the first time, a bombing occurred, two blocks from the police station in Mexico City

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which sent shock waves through the heart of the Mexican capital. But officials on the case have said they are investigating whether it could be the work of drug cartels reeling from a crackdown by President Felipe Calderon. Leftist guerrilla groups also have a history of bombing in Mexico, but they have normally hit political or commercial buildings at night without leaving casualties.

If drug gangs are proven to be behind the blast, it would show a worrying escalation in the battle between organized crime and the government. Since Jan. 1, drug cartel gunmen armed with huge arsenals of automatic rifles and grenade launchers have slain more than 30 police, soldiers and judges in ambushes and assassinations. The attacks come as Calderon has made record drug busts, sent 25,000 police and soldiers against the gangs, and extradited alleged kingpins to the United States.

While the Mexican crime families do not have a history of using bombs, explosive devices used to be a favored tactic of their associates in Colombia. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Medellin cartel responded to a government crackdown with bombs on street corners, cars and even one passenger jet, killing hundreds. Colombian gangsters have long been selling cocaine to the Mexican cartels, who smuggle it into the United States. "The cartels could be turning to this Colombian tactic of using terror to pressure the government to back off," said Mexican drug expert Jorge Chabat. "They may be trying to raise the political cost for Calderon of carrying out his campaign."

Police say the man killed in the blast was probably himself carrying the bomb because the device went off about a three feet from the ground, blowing out surrounding car windows but not causing a crater. "The man completely lost his hand. He surely did this when he was handling the explosive device," Mexico City Police Chief Joel Ortega told reporters.

The occupation by army forces has been protested in Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa by hundreds of people blocking the bridges and stopping traffic. Of course, murders have been constant, gruesome beheadings among them.

The drug wars are supported by the U.S., and recently that war was condemned by a panel formed by Latin American governments alarmed at the violence.

As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point.

"The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro. "We have to move from this approach to another one."

The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

Such sanity seems far removed from any action that our government took over the previous eight years. With a large community still holding control of seats in Congress who would never let sanity break out, my optimism is somewhat constrained. Yes, that's unusual for me. This is a growing situation on the border of the U.S. that were we not in over our ears in the Middle East, our government might provide some help with. As it is, I think we will give our Latin American neighbors more grounds to despair of us.

For now, I will repeat a friend's advice when I left her home on Padre Island for a trip to the Big Bend area, planning to make a quick trip over into Mexico. Her advice: Go in a rural area, stay away from the big cities, only go by day. I had a lovely visit and went on my way to Alpine, where I was delighted to see the Marfa lights. No hallucinogens involved, just forget you thought that.