Question: Why did the Administration give the name "Operation Intercept" to its drive against drugs from Mexico? Answer: Because somebody else had already thought up Mission: Impossible.
The Treasury agents, aircraft and Coast Guard boats that have been swarming on, over and around the 2,500-mile border since September 21 made only 500 arrests and seized just two tons of marijuana by the end of last week. Yet, if the crackdown did temporarily reduce the annual 1,200-ton flow of "grass" from south of the border —presumably because the serious smugglers just sat it out—it also reduced U.S.-Mexican relations to one of the lowest points in years.
U.S.-bound traffic on busy Mexican Routes 2 and 15 backed up for miles while drivers waited as long as three hours to get through customs. Many U.S. tourists were unwilling to put up with the delays, and many Mexicans, outraged at being searched "to the skin," joined a boycott against nearby U.S. cities. Officials in hard-hit San Diego were worried that without grass, kids would turn to hard drugs. In towns on the Mexican side, where trade was off 40% to 75%, businessmen were near panic. The gate evaporated at Tijuana's Agua Caliente race track, and occupancy rates at Ensenada resort hotels fell to a ridiculous 5%. Effects were felt as far south as Mexico City, where Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz publicly denounced Washington's "bureaucratic error."
Pushing a Point. No one was pleased with Intercept—no one, that is, but the Nixon Administration. Washington's idea was not so much to stop the drug flow; not even light planes teamed with ground radar could spot every airborne dope smuggler. The object was to force Mexico City to do something about the illegal but large-scale cultivation of marijuana and other narcotics throughout the country. To emphasize the point, the U.S. made it clear to Mexico that it was ready to press the drive for at least a month.
Last week the U.S. abruptly throttled back. Not long after Mexican Foreign Minister Antonio Carrillo Flores personally complained to Secretary of State William Rogers by telephone, U.S. and Mexican representatives announced in Washington that Operation Intercept had been replaced by "Operation Cooperation." The U.S., said a terse communiqué, would "adjust" customs procedures to cut out "inconvenience, delay and irritation"—meaning that the border inspections would be eased. In two weeks, talks are to begin in Mexico City on a joint antidrug effort. U.S. officials are calling that a victory, but it has the ring of a bugout too. The latest goal, as State spokesmen explain it, is a gradual "Mexicanization" of the war on drugs.