Drug War alliance

Monday, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto signed an unprecedented agreement with two northern Mexican states -- Chihuahua and Baja California -- vowing to share intelligence and assist leaders there in reforming their archaic judicial system, which has proved largely ineffective in dealing with powerful drug cartels that have become almost separate, parallel governments.

The deal comes after Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged states to open up their judicial systems, presenting forensic findings and other evidence in open trials.

Many Americans will ask, "as opposed to what?"

The Mexican justice system is based on legal codes imported by French conquerors in the early 19th century. There's no "presumption of innocence" to speak of, let alone any open trial by "a jury of your peers."

Mexican states have traditionally presented no evidence at trial and charged suspects based on piles of affidavits and forced confessions, according to Rafaela Herrera, a rule-of-law adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Cross-examination of witnesses and presentations of evidence have been non-existent.

The agreement allows Nevada's law enforcement agencies to teach the Mexican states how to conduct forensic investigations, how to collect evidence and properly prosecute cases in open court.

In exchange, the two Mexican states are supposed to freely share information on drug dealers and other criminals who might cross into the United States.

The participants should be commended and offered every assistance, though they face an uphill battle.

Where corruption is a way of life, local police agencies can be heavily infiltrated. Where jobs are held based on political patronage rather than "merit" promotion, survival can depend on information, making the habit of secrecy hard to break.

Even a partial lifting the cloak of secrecy has come at a price. Mr. Herrera of U.S. AID reports that since Patricia Gonzalez took office as attorney general for the state of Chihuahua in 2006, 26 of her bodyguards have been gunned down.

Officials from Nevada and Mexico were originally scheduled to sign the new agreement on Nov. 7. But that ceremony was canceled after a rash of killings in Baja California.

Such escalating mayhem was familiar enough in our own country in the 1920s and early 1930s, when the commerce placed beyond the reach of contract and the law was that in alcohol, rather than today's forbidden drugs. Fortunately, in 1932, a nation weary of the bloodletting elected a new Congress, and President Franklin Roosevelt found a way to end the bootleggers' violence, virtually overnight.