El Paso, Texas (AP) - Mexico's government may be stretched thin but it's not on the brink of collapse in its bloody war with powerful, well-armed drug cartels, Sen. John Kerry said Monday during a hearing.
 
President Felipe Calderon's government, which launched an offensive against the cartels more than a year ago, remains a "functional democracy," said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in El Paso, just across the Rio Grande from the center of the violence, Ciudad Juarez.
 
"I am troubled by the suggestions from some quarters that Mexico is in imminent danger of becoming a failed state," Kerry said. "Mexico is a functional democracy with a vibrant and open economy."
 
The Massachusetts Democrat was joined by Republicans John Barrasso of Wyoming and Roger Wicker of Mississippi for the hearing on what the U.S. can do to help stem the violence and ensure it doesn't spread further into the United States.
 
Jaime Esparza, the district attorney for El Paso, testified that despite violence in Ciudad Juarez that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since January 2008 there has been no spike in crime in Texas border cities. He said descriptions of a spillover are widely exaggerated.
 
"It's night and day," he said, comparing the climate of El Paso to the violence in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people.
 
Officials in Phoenix and Atlanta, among other cities, have reported a rise in home invasions, kidnappings and drug-related killings attributed to cartel cells.
 
Trafficking of high-caliber weapons made or sold in the U.S. continues to pose one of the greatest threats, said William McMahon, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive deputy assistant director for field operations.
 
"We are seeing that they (cartels) are using military grade weapons," he said. "More southbound inspections would be very helpful."
 
McMahon said ATF officials are concentrating on prosecuting gun dealers and gun buyers with a clean criminal history who buy guns to smuggle to Mexico.
 
Harriet Babbitt, the former ambassador to the Organization of American States, testified that the U.S. could help its own efforts by ratifying a cross-border weapons smuggling treaty originally signed more than a decade ago.
 
The treaty requires countries to mark guns so they can be traced. The U.S. already requires that of guns imported or sold here, which helped officials to conclude that 90 percent of the guns traced by Mexican authorities are from the U.S.
 
The problem is only about one in four guns found in Mexico is ever traced, McMahon said. Babbitt suggested that ratifying the treaty probably would increase Mexico's participation.
 
Wicker and Barrasso said they worried the treaty could infringe on the rights of U.S. gun owners.
 
McMahon and Joseph Arabit, special agent in charge of El Paso's Drug Enforcement Administration office, testified that their agencies primarily need more money and personnel at the border.
 
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced plans last week to send nearly 500 federal agents and support personnel to the border - but not National Guard troops as suggested by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
 
Arabit told the committee that troops probably aren't necessary.
 
"I don't know that we are there yet," he said. "There have been 413 homicides in Juarez, and two in El Paso. The violence has not spilled over."
 
Kerry said the U.S. needs to fully commit to fighting the cartels in the U.S. and Mexico. He said smuggling is far too easy.
 
"If I was in the business of moving that stuff ... I would sort of be laughing at our efforts," Kerry said. "Some of the lower level guys, mules, are being caught but they (cartel leaders) don't care. Then they find other ways to move drugs."