Provoking Alarm

While in Bogotá for a visit with the Colombian military, Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned increasing the military cooperation between Mexico in the US. He then flew to Mexico for a visit with the nation's military brass, where somewhat harsh reaction to his words awaited. PRD Deputy Alfonso Suárez de Real accused him of peddling the following idea:

Mexico is a failed state, and that our actions against drug trafficking are wrong, and that the cartels have overtaken us, while they, the United States, are the champions of war.

That's just one quote, but I wouldn't expect a radically different response from any Mexican politician, PAN, PRI, PT, Convergencia, you name it. Military contacts between the two nations are far more distant than the ties between law enforcement agencies. When Robert Gates came to Mexico City last year, he was only the second defense boss in American history to have done so, and the visit was much remarked on. Mexican analysts regularly commented on the Pentagon's desire to have a presence high in the Mexican chain of command during the debate about the Mérida Initiative. Everywhere else one looks, the bilateral relationship is deepening, but the military resentment is a persistent holdover from another era. I wonder if Mullen's comments were calculated to soften up the resistance to a deeper military relationship, or if they were merely spontaneous.