R.J. Godlewski's The Independent Counterterrorist. I, Militia. June ...

ut improving and expanding U.S. engagement on
these issues is critical. The United States should offer to
assist Mexico in developing specific anti-gang and anticartel
laws, and the various U.S. agencies with special
expertise in fighting organized crime can provide aid in
fashioning effective prosecution strategies. The United
States already has professional exchanges that focus on
these issues in place vis-à-vis several Central American
nations; if extended to Mexico, such programs can offer
a relatively inexpensive way of making that country’s
legal system better suited to tackling current threats.
Even more important will be greater support for
President Calderon’s new initiative to modernize
judicial procedures by permitting the use of oral evidence,
conducting open rather than secret proceedings,
and improving the transparency and efficiency of
the Mexican court system. Central American countries
working with the financial and technical assistance
of USAID have had some success in conducting such
reforms and making their legal systems more accessible
to the population. Similar cooperation will be essential
in Mexico. 140
Economic and Social Development.
Over the long term, the success of counternarcotics
in Mexico will hinge in no small part on the government’s
ability to address the economic grievances and
social alienation that often inform criminal activity.
The security threats that the United States confronts
in the Western Hemisphere, Admiral Stavridis has
recently written, “are symptoms of the deeper endemic
problems of poverty and inequality.” 141
Setting aside the herculean economic and financial
problems now facing Mexico—and indeed all the
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