Mead on U.S. Helping Mexico

* Re “How the U.S. Can Rebuild Mexico,” by Walter Russell Mead, Opinion, April 30: What arrogance to presume the U.S. has the duty--nay, the divine right--and expertise to shape up poor, inept, corrupt Mexico to be closer to our heart’s desire. How about casting out the beam in our own eye first?

If real wages in Mexico are below what they were in 1981, that is also true for two-thirds of Americans. Before attacking corruption in Mexico, let us begin rebuilding our own backyard, from the LAPD to top U.S. politicians owned by corporations. If it will be so simple to force contractors to observe appropriate labor and environmental standards in Mexico, why can’t we achieve that here in our own country?

As for private capital building Mexican infrastructure, the Japanese have already done that with disastrous results. A Japanese company contracted to build private toll roads. I have used them. They are the equal of any American toll road, but empty of traffic due to the high tolls. The Japanese sold them back to the Mexican government for a huge loss.

As for narco-traffickers, the U.S. owns the drug problem.

JAN HOLLE

North Hollywood

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The notion propounded by Mead that we should try to help Mexico even more than we presently are is nonsense. After all, isn’t NAFTA little more than welfare for Mexico and a way to keep labor costs down here in the U.S.?

Mexico is an enemy of the United States. It acts willfully, thanks to drug trafficker penetration of the highest levels of that country’s government, as a transshipment point for the poisonous narcotics that have turned our inner cities into war zones and destroyed millions of American lives. The Mexican government interferes in the internal affairs of the U.S. by throwing a fit every time we try to get tough on illegal immigration.

The fact is that Mexico does not give a damn about the U.S. Mead insists that we aid a country that has given us little other than overflowing schools and gang warfare. Mead needs a reality check.

GARY GARLAND

Yorba Linda