Special Agent Michael Sanders

FP: News organizations have reported on a growing weapons trade across the U.S.-Mexican border. Is that something you have seen?

Michael Sanders: Operation Gunrunner, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, is trying to track and trace all the weapons that are seized coming out of the United States. Some of those trafficking are sending individuals to purchase weapons at gun shows, but that’s only one part of it, and that’s not a very big part of it. The larger thing Operation Gunrunner is going after are the individuals who are purchasing high volumes of automatic weapons and basically bringing them from north to south and then black-marketing them.

FP: As a special agent, how do you see the evolution of this crisis in Mexico?

MS: We’ve conducted investigations beginning from the time that the Colombians started using the Mexicans to get the cocaine [across the border.] Then at some point in the mid-1990s, we started seeing a shift, where Mexican cartels were purchasing [the cocaine from the Colombians] and then setting up distribution networks in the United States. You started seeing the violence because [the cartels were] fighting amongst each other for routes.

Now, Calderón and his administration have started an active campaign against the traffickers. The cartels are now having to fight against the military as well as each other. Calderón is [also] going after the corrupt police and military and whatever individuals who are taking money from the cartels. He is putting on pressure. And whenever there is pressure, then these organizations are turning towards kidnapping and ransoms and extortions.

If you look at Colombia back in the ’80s, it was much like Mexico is today: There were kidnappings, killings of state officials, law enforcement, and judges. Nobody was protected, and there was a lot of corruption. But you look at Colombia now under President Uribe, and you see there’s still going to be crime but not like it was. What Uribe has done is to put a law enforcement presence in every county in every administration. Calderón has tried to do the same thing. He’s fighting a war, and there’s going to be a lot of violence.

FP: If it took Colombia more than 20 years to break that cycle, what does the timeline look like for Mexico?

MS: Colombia’s a lot smaller than Mexico. And Colombia, with regard to the drug trafficking, has to get products to the United States. It’s easier for the Mexicans: They can walk, swim, or truck it across the border. Colombia had to bring it all the way up either by fast boats or fishing boats, or had to get it across the Caribbean or the Pacific. It was hard. But that’s a lot easier for the Mexicans.

Enrique Krauze is editor of the magazine Letras Libres and author of Mexico: Biography of Power (New York: HarperCollins, 1997). Michael Sanders is special agent and spokesperson at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.