CNAS Report: U.S. and Mexico Should Embrace Regional Cooperation to Combat Drug Cartels

As Presidents Obama and Calderón
continue to discuss the United States and Mexico's efforts to combat growing
drug-related violence, the leaders should look to embrace regional
cooperation to combat the cartels, according to a recent report authored
by Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Bob Killebrew. 

 
In Crime Wars: Gangs,
Cartels, and U.S. National Security, Killebrew surveys organized crime throughout the Western
Hemisphere and analyzes the challenges it poses to individual countries and
regional security. He argues that Mexico will remain a key state in the
struggle against violent organized crime in the region, and that
the United States should continue to support Mexico's efforts while
examining its own role in the ongoing conflict. In addition, the report
notes, the United States and Mexico should:  

• Increase
  U.S.-Mexico law enforcement and intelligence cooperation.
• Increase
  bilateral training and assistance.
• Embrace
  regional cooperation to attack cartels.
• Attack
  the cartels’ financial networks and money-laundering capabilities.

“Whether Calderón and his successors
can or will sustain a long-term, bloody fight to root out corruption in the
Mexican state and reassert the rule of law is a matter of grave concern for the
United States,” said Killebrew.

Download
Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National
Security. 

This report is also available
for download in Spanish: Guerras del Crimen: Pandillas, Cárteles
y la Seguridad Nacional Estadounidense.