U.S. ignores Mexican border violence

Imagine for a moment the New York State Police warning American boaters to steer clear of the Canadian side of Lake Ontario because they might fall victim to pirates.
Imagine that violent gangs armed with military weaponry created a no man's land along the border shared by the United States and Canada that challenged the sovereignty of both nations.
Would this for a moment be tolerable?
Of course not. Yet residents of South Texas are expected to endure precisely this situation on the U.S.-Mexican border.
In May, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned boaters on Falcon Lake, which straddles the border, to stay on the U.S. side after a number of armed robberies. The perpetrators were believed to be "members of a drug trafficking organization or members of an enforcer group ... who are heavily armed and using AK-47s or AR-15 rifles."
On Sept. 30, these gangs apparently claimed their first American victim on Falcon Lake. According to Tiffany Hartley, several boats of gunman ambushed her and her husband as they rode their Jet Skis. David Hartley was shot in the head and is presumed dead.
The lead Mexican investigator in the case was murdered.
During the first half of 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported, 48 U.S. citizens were killed in Mexico, including an employee of the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez and her husband. That number pales in comparison with the more than 28,000 Mexican citizens who have lost their lives since President Felipe Calderon began to fight back against the cartels in 2006.
The violence should serve as an ominous indicator of just how lethally serious the border security problem is. But how seriously is the U.S. government taking that problem?
Two answers come from the Government Accountability Office. In a new draft report, the GAO found that environmental laws are hampering the Border Patrol's ability to operate along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another GAO report released in July found that two years into the three-year Merida Initiative to assist Mexico's law enforcement and judicial agencies, the U.S. government had disbursed less than 10 percent of the $1.3 billion appropriated.
The U.S. government is as concerned about the Huachuca water umbel -- an endangered plant -- and the transparency of Mexico's military justice system as it is about maintaining stability in a nation of 110 million people that shares a 2,000-mile border with the United States.
How many more people must die before the United States gets its priorities straight?


Jonathan Gurwitz writes for the San Antonio Express-News. His e-mail address is jgurwitz@express-news.net.