Guns and cash from the U.S. contribute to drug-related violence in Mexico, the Mexican consul general in Atlanta said Thursday, encouraging a cooperative effort to fight the problem.

"We cannot be successful unless we fight it together," Salvador de Lara told a breakfast meeting of the Mexican American Business Chamber held on March 18 at the Latin American Association on Buford Highway.

Mr. de Lara said 90 percent of the weapons seized from drug smugglers in Mexico originated in the United States. Most are assault weapons, he added. The cartels get cash from selling drugs in the United States, he said, with "drugs going north, money going south."

The Mexican government has declared war on the cartels, but needs help in stemming the flow of guns and cash from the U.S., said Mr. de Lara.

It would help Mexico if there were fewer drug buyers in the United States, said the consul general.

"We are fighting it but something has to be done on the demand side," said Mr. de Lara.

He stressed that the violence has not spread throughout Mexico, but is concentrated in the southern part of the country where drugs are being transported in from South America and in the north where shipments are crossing into the U.S..

His comments followed the shooting deaths last weekend of a U.S. consulate employee, her American husband, and a Mexican citizen affiliated with the consulate in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. 

More than 2,600 people were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people, according to a U.S. State Department travel advisory issued March 13.

"U.S. citizens should pay close attention to their surroundings while traveling in Ciudad Juarez, avoid isolated locations during late night and early morning hours, and remain alert to news reports." the advisory said.

Whether the issue is drug violence, global warming or trade, Mexico and the U.S. are so strongly linked, geographically and economically, that problems can't be solved without working together, Mr. DeLara said.

"Changes in Mexico affect the U.S in an unprecedented manner and the other way around," he said. "As neighbors in the world whether we like it or not, it is in both our interests to work together."

"Mexico is providing more oil [to the U.S.] than Saudi Arabia," he added, pointing out that Mexico is the third largest trading partner of the U.S.

Whenever a country like Mexico, which has a developing economy adjoins a prosperous nation such as the United States, there will be problems with immigration, said Mr. DeLara. "It's an issue all over the world. A more developed economy will always have a pulling effect on the less developed economy."

Mexico itself gets immigrants from poorer countries in Latin America, he said.

The economic downturn has only temporarily slowed down the flow of undocumented Mexican immigrants to the U.S., the consul general said. "As soon as there are jobs, they will start coming, I guarantee that."

While Mexican immigration may have slowed in Georgia, the Mexican consulate in Atlanta has not seen any indication that those who are already here are returning to their home country, Mr. de Lara said. He believes they are waiting here in hopes that jobs will return.

He endorsed comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. that would allow more Mexican immigrants to legally immigrate if there is demand for their labor and a path toward legalizing the immigrants who are already here.

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