Politics

Washington –  U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told lawmakers here that drug-related violence in Mexico poses a security threat to the United States and acknowledged that the system in place to prevent a potential terrorist from penetrating the U.S. southwestern border is not "iron-clad."

During an appearance Thursday before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Clapper reiterated the U.S. government's position that drug trafficking and the prevalence of drug cartels in Mexico is a "matter of national security interest in both countries."

"The whole business of, however you want to label it, of drug trafficking is just a very serious national security problem. It's one that we, both countries, share in," Clapper said.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who advocates for tighter border security, asked Clapper whether an individual who may enter the country with "enough money and enough determination" poses a potential terrorist threat to the United States.

"Well, yes, sir, it does," Clapper said.

"I don't think, (Homeland Security) Secretary (Janet) Napolitano pretends we've got an iron-clad, perfect system," although he added that the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are doing a commendable job securing the border.

Clapper compared the struggle against cartels in Mexico to the long-running fight against drug violence in Colombia, saying the "tactics, techniques and procedures that were used and developed and honed over a period of 10 or 15 years in Colombia" are currently being applied in Mexico.

"We're applying that same approach to the extent that the Mexican government, which is a sovereign nation ... will permit us to help them. And I think we are enjoying some success but ... it's a work in progress," the intelligence director said.

Clapper announced that he will pay a visit in the near future to the El Paso Intelligence Center, the Border Patrol and other entities in the border region to get a close-up look at the struggle against drug trafficking.

The EPIC is located across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which is the scene of a brutal turf battle between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels and is known as Mexico's murder capital.

During the hearing, the head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency, Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess also characterized drug-related violence in Mexico as a "national security concern because if you can move drugs, if you can move people, you can move other things that are of concern to us as a nation."

"So it is something that we need to have an interest in," Burgess said.

A total of 15,270 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 35,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon militarized the struggle against the country's cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels' ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.