Report: Mexico's drug war is not working

Is the U.S.-backed drug war in Mexico working? By almost any account or any measure, the answer is no. Though high-ranking authorities on both sides of the border continue to support Mexico's military-led enforcement strategy against the country's powerful drug trafficking cartels, the facts remain stark, L.A. Times correspondents Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood say in a special report published Sunday.

The cartels are stronger, more violent, and transnational. Here are the worrisome highlights from the story:

* More than 28,000 people have been killed since December 2006.

* Mexico's effort has failed to dismantle the networks or significantly slow the flow of drugs. More narcotics are flowing into the United States.

* The availability of methamphetamine in the U.S. has hit a five-year high, while cocaine exports have dropped, possibly due to increased flow to other markets.

* Traffickers may now pose a long-term danger to Mexico's stability. Swaths of the country are now in effect without authority.

* The groups have transformed themselves into broad criminal empires deeply involved in migrant smuggling, extortion, kidnapping and trafficking in contraband.

* Drug gangs are armed with military-class weapons smuggled from the U.S., or weapons left over from U.S.-backed wars in Central America.

* Mexican traffickers have muscled aside competitors to gain control over shipments of most types of illegal drugs in the hemisphere.

* Criminal groups have usurped the government's role as tax collector.

* Traffickers have succeeded in shutting down major operations of Pemex, the state oil company and top source of national income. Traffickers have been stealing oil for years.

* Mexican drug gangs now operate in more than 2,500 cities in the U.S.

In addition to all this, attacks on journalists and human rights workers have skyrocketed, and so have claims of human rights abuses committed by Mexico's military. Still, the administration of U.S. President Obama plans to supply Mexico with more than $1 billion in aid under the Merida Initiative. A recent congressional report warns of lack of oversight on how that aid is spent. Only 9% of Merida Initiative funds have been delivered so far.

Now, the question of whether Mexico should legalize drugs, as former President Vicente Fox now advocates, is in many ways a moot proposal. A legalization of drugs in Mexico would have no effect on the illicit drug trade and market without a concurrent plan in the United States, many experts say.

But don't count on that to happen anytime soon. As the idea floats over both countries this week, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press: "We don't believe legalization is the answer." 

Then ... what is?

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photos: Authorities salute the caskets of seven police officers slain in Tijuana in April 2009. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Blanca Garcia]

In theory, through legalization the Mexican government would tax and regulate the drug trade and use the money generated from this to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addicts.

In theory, legalization would push prices down as drugs would become easily available and because reputable pharmaceutical companies would get involved in the development and distribution of safe and cheap alternatives.

Ha ha ha. What I would like to see is the implementation process of this theory.

Let’s say that Mexico decides to legalize drugs and by definition the drug trade. Then what? Mr. Drug Baron, who is already paying hefty bribes on both sides of the border to run his business and has a complicated network that goes all the way from producing to distributing and pushing, agrees with this ‘wonderful’ idea and goes legal?

So he registers “Fumate Un Churro S.A.” in Mexico and “Fly High Inc.” in the U.S.A. Enrolls his gangsters in the IMSS (social security), exchanges their guns for business cards, starts raising invoices, paying taxes and allowing the government to regulate the selling price of this produce? All these to see his revenues and profits plummet because the demand is not there anymore as Pfizer and Novartis are producing safer and cheaper alternatives to good’ol coke and marihuana?

Ha ha ha. Wake up and smell the coffee! Legalizing drugs without getting rid of the drug cartels first will only give users a cheaper ride to lah-lah-land and will increase the violence exponentially.

So, how about having the Americans commit to selling to someone else the top-notch weapons that have been empowering the drug cartels? Hey! How about giving those weapons to the Mexican drug squads instead so that they can fight on equal grounds with the gangsters? … and how about if the Americans lend Mexican authorities their international agents, specialized in finding the really bad guys (the ones that found Sadam Hussein, please, not the ones that are still looking for Osama Bin Laden) to locate the drug barons? This way you leave the ‘little bad guys’ headless and under-armed and easier to control … and then, we can all take a ride on those 3 Black Hawks that the USA so kindly suggested to donate to fight the drug war, and we can all can take some lovely aerial pictures of a safer Mexico.

[epespinoza43]

Mexico should sue the US in international court for aiding and abetting the drug lords. The US is at the demand end of the equation "Demand create Supply". And where do the drug gangs get their weapons? The United States. And what currency is used as the exchange medium? Benjamins. This goes on and on.

I can't help but suspect that the US is getting kickbacks from these druggies to fund illegal actions that are outside of the GAO's reach.

[Richard Nibbler]

Legalization is the only feasible answer on both sides of the border...

[Johnz52]

Guess what, neither is America's war on drugs succeeding.

[Bill Harris]

Rooting out the number-one cash crop in the land burns tax dollars instead of booking them. Arresting Americans for gardening empowers outlaws to take over Mexico. The DEA says they don’t need no stinking amendment. Political prisoner Marc Emery delivered on Madame Secretary Clinton’s promise to Calderon. Emery sold seed to American farmers, reducing U. S. demand for Mexican pot.