Bloodstained Mexico border creeps up Obama agenda

By Julian Cardona -Analysis

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Drug cartel gun battles that leave dead bodies yards from American soil have turned Mexico's bloodstained northern border into a major foreign policy challenge for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Much closer to home than Iraq or Afghanistan, the scenes of carnage in the drug war along the border are alarming Washington and will be top of Obama's agenda when he visits the Mexican capital on Thursday.

Cartel hitmen slaughtered some 6,300 people in Mexico last year, in many cases torturing or beheading their victims. In border cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, dead bodies have been strung from bridges and dissolved in vats of caustic soda.

"Never in my life have I seen as much danger as now," said a bus company operator in Ciudad Juarez, too scared to give his name after a close business partner was brutally murdered.

Worried that drug violence is seeping into the United States, Obama has already vowed tighter southbound border controls to reduce the flow of illegal U.S. guns smuggled to the cartels.

Mexicans and Americans alike are keen to see whether he will offer more help in crushing the traffickers, whose feuding over lucrative smuggling routes north is creating a bigger threat to Mexican stability than has been seen in years.

"This is extraordinarily important to the United States and our national security and economic interests," said Michael Braun, a former operations chief at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and now a security consultant at Spectre Group.

"Iraq and Afghanistan are certainly important but, well, pull out the map -- Mexico is our closest neighbor to the south," he said.

Focused on the economic crisis and domestic issues, Obama gave little campaign air time to Mexico, a politically stable U.S. trade partner and oil supplier for many years. But he told CBS recently that Mexico's violence had "gotten out of hand."

Drug murders have soared, particularly near the border, as President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to try to crush cartel violence that had been on the rise since around 2003. A new military surge last month has reduced the pace of killings but they could resume once the soldiers move on.

Obama's visit, en route to a summit of leaders from across the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, follows recent Mexico trips by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

BATTLEGROUND BORDER CITIES

Tit-for-tat murders by warring drug cartels and daylight shootouts with police have traumatized residents in battleground cities along Mexico's northern border.

Bystanders, including children, sometimes get caught in the cross-fire. In one incident in Ciudad Juarez, hitmen chased an ambulance and burst inside to finish off an injured victim.

Extortion of small businesses is also rampant.

"It's like being kidnapped. You are free to be with your family and at work, but the burden is the same as paying a ransom," said a beauty salon owner in Tijuana who paid $500 a week to a local drug gang until he ran out of money, closed up and fled over the border to a town near San Diego.

In Reynosa, another border city, business owners say the violence is frightening off U.S. clients. "We are seeing fewer winter Texans," said dental clinic manager Rebeca Delfin. "They are scared that if you put your foot on this side of the border you will get shot."

As the army crackdown cramps their movements in Mexico, some gangs are crossing into the United States and staging armed raids on homes to seize handguns and cash.

In Pima County, on Arizona's border with Mexico, armed assaults on homes by gangs seeking cash and drugs have nearly doubled in the past year, according to Sergeant Terry Parish, a robbery assault team supervisor.

"It's a result of the drug trade coming into America," he told Reuters. "Unfortunately I serve a community that happens to be right on that border, the result is the violence."

Clinton told Mexico last month that an "insatiable" U.S. appetite for illegal drugs was largely to blame for its drug problem and acknowledged Washington should speed up delivery of $1.4 billion worth of drug-fighting gear promised in 2007.

Already popular in Mexico, Obama would win plaudits by offering even more money for the drug war, observers say.

Braun noted the $1.4 billion in aid offered by former U.S. President George W. Bush is dwarfed by the roughly $700 billion Washington has spent on Iraq and Afghanistan. "It's not nearly enough. We're going to have to find more money," he said.

Mexican officials say nine in 10 guns seized at drug crime scenes are traced back to the United States, often assault rifles back in circulation after a U.S. ban expired in 2004. Obama may not suggest reinstating the ban but could offer more smuggling curbs.

"It's clear the Obama administration has decided to make Mexico a foreign policy priority," said Josh Kussman, a former U.S. border policy director and vice president of The Sentinel HS Group consulting firm.

"As the Calderon administration steps up its fight against the cartels, we should step up our support for helping Mexico win this fight and establish the rule of law."