While virtually all headlines from the United Nations General Assembly in New York focused on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, there is another conflict that is going almost unnoticed despite the fact that it is causing many more deaths: the drug-related wars in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

To my surprise, in his speech at the General Assembly's opening session, President Obama talked at length about Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Cote D'Ivorie -- about almost every major conflict, except the one right next to the United States.

I happen to like what Obama said about most of these issues, including his reminder to the world that Israel's security concerns, as a country surrounded by neighbors that have invaded it repeatedly and that still allow terrorists to throw rockets at its cities, are legitimate.

But it felt odd that Obama didn't mention the words drugs, cartels, organized crime, or Mexico even once in his U.N. speech, ignoring a war that has caused nearly 40,000 deaths in Mexico alone over the past five years -- much more than all recent Middle Eastern uprisings -- and that is becoming one of the biggest hurdles to economic growth in the region.

According to United Nations Development Program estimates, Latin America is one of the most violent regions in the world, with an annual average of 25 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Last year, 18,000 people in Central America were murdered, forcing governments to spend $4 billion on security issues, a 60 percent increase over what they had spent four years earlier, the UNDP said.

Predictably, one of the few presidents who raised the issue was Mexico's Felipe Calderon.

Minutes after Obama's references to the tyrants who are repressing civilians in Iran, Libya, Syria and other countries, Calderon said that "we have to be aware that organized crime is killing more people than all dictatorial regimes together right now: tens of thousands of people in Latin America are dying because of these criminals."

Calderon said that the drug cartels are becoming more powerful than many governments thanks to their fabulous profits from drug sales, and because they are getting easy access to heavy weapons from across the U.S. border.

What is the solution? First, the United States and other big arms-producing countries should set up stronger controls to keep powerful weapons from ending up in the hands of the drug cartels, Calderon said. Second, drug-consuming countries should reduce the demand for drugs, he said.

Stopping very short of endorsing drug legalization, Calderon suggested that if efforts to reduce U.S. and European drug consumption fail, drug-consuming nations should "seek other options, including market alternatives, to stop drug traffickers from continuing to be the source of violence and death."

Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a professor at Mexico's ITAM university who until recently served as a top adviser to Calderon and is conducting a UNDP study on violence in Latin America, told me that despite the Obama administration's 2009 public recognition that the United States shares responsibility for Mexico's drug violence, not much has changed.

"The U.S. strategy hasn't changed: it continues largely based on interdiction in Mexico and Central America, which means waging the war south of its border," he said. "Unless we do something fast, this is a cancer that will destroy our democracies."

My opinion: Obama had good reasons to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Iraq and Afghanistan, but he made a big mistake by omitting the war next door. It is a bloody conflict that, in addition to leaving a huge death toll, is becoming the biggest obstacle to economic growth in the region by draining government resources away from education and health, scaring away investments, and killing tourism.

There are many things Washington can do, including cracking down on U.S. semi-automatic weapons sales, starting a serious discussion on whether legalization of marijuana would help free up resources for reducing consumption of harder drugs, and -- as suggested in a Foreign Affairs magazine article by Mark Kleiman -- refocusing anti-drug efforts to crack down on violent drug traffickers, rather than fighting indiscriminately against all drug traffickers.

Instead of ignoring reality, Obama should place Latin America's drug wars among the top issues on the world agenda and come up with a more meaningful, multination strategy.

 

 

Twitter: @ihavenet

 

 

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