Mexico Is Not a Failed State

Pres. Barack Obama went to Mexico and, unlike many of his presidential predecessors, didn’t stay in a remote resort, but in the midst of Mexico City, the sprawling metropolis of 20 million.

The visit — Obama’s first stop in Latin America — and the locale — the capital where an American president hadn’t visited in 12 years — sent the signal that the United States is committed to a country that is a punching bag in American domestic politics, but an indispensable ally in a region buffeted by revolutionary left-wing politics.

As if to underscore the stakes, on the eve of Obama’s visit, another dozen were killed in a shootout between Mexican soldiers and drug traffickers. Mexico now produces headlines — of beheadings and similar acts of savagery by the traffickers — that one more readily associates with the war zones of the Middle East. Last year alone, 6,300 people died in drug violence, more than the number of American troops killed in the entirety of the Iraq and Afghan wars.