Mexico is beginning to be compared to Pakistan!

If Madeleine Albright called Pakistan "an international migraine", Pakistanis can take succour from the fact that another country, and that too bordering the United States, is coming close to it.

The US is getting worried about it. A just-published study by the United States Joint Forces Command says, "In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico." Though it also says Mexico is still not in as bad a state as Pakistan is.

Why is Mexico finding itself sinking slowly into anarchy? The answer is simple: The drug business. The Mexican economy is heavily dependent on the money sent home by the millions of migrant workers in the US, and so it has been hit hard by the downturn in its neighbour's economy. In such a scenario the drug trade is spreading fast. With it comes the rising violent crimes, kidnappings and brutal killings as the drug gangs battle it out amongst themselves for supremacy.

The worrying thing is that the gangs are bribing security agencies to look the other way as they go about their tasks with impunity. President Calderon has sent in the army but such is the reach of the gangs that they have managed to buy out many in the government. A Mexican army major, Arturo González, was arrested on suspicion that he sold information about President Felipe Calderón's movements for $100,000 a month. González belonged to a special unit responsible for protecting the president.

It is not that the government is not doing anything to deal with the rising threat. Lawmakers have suggested legalizing marijuana to reduce traffickers' profits, bringing back the death penalty for kidnappers and reducing the age at which criminal suspects can be tried as adults to 12 from 18, among other measures.

Other measures include the courts proceedings made oral; the needs of documents being minimised to hurry up things. Also arrests of criminals has been made easier. Security forces are being overhauled to make them bribery proof. Also the emphasis is on better co-ordination between various agencies.

To reduce the gun culture in Mexico, toy guns have been banned. Also sale of guns is to be reduced; most are smuggled from the United States.

To make things worse, the US too is dragging it's feet on giving the Mexican government $1.4 billion as assistance to help it fight the drug gangs, because of the recession.