A very thoughtful and provocative piece from the respected Independent Institute
The Independent Institute
Commentary
The Drug War in Mexico: Corruption Is Better Than Slaughter
July 9, 2012
Ivan Eland
Will Enrique Peña Nieto, the new president of Mexico from the corrupt and authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), go easy on drug
traffickers? Let’s hope so.
During his campaign, Mr. Peña Nieto vowed to battle murder, extortion, kidnapping, and other violent crimes but said little about going after drug
traffickers. During its unrivaled 70-year reign that ended in 2000, the PRI was accused of cutting deals with crime syndicates to keep the peace.
Although such agreements were corrupt, perhaps corruption is better than the militarized U.S.-backed anti-drug war of Felipe Calderón, the current
Mexican president. Fatigue with that costly war, which has killed more than 50,000 Mexican civilians in recent years, played a significant role in
Mexicans bringing back a venal and autocratic PRI that they had thrown out of office 12 years before.
But any president of Mexico must pay heed to the wishes of the colossus of the north, and Washington is already suspicious that Peña Nieto will ease
the pressure on drug traffickers and stop taking down cartel chieftains.
Of course, most Mexicans would be happy if Peña Nieto did exactly that. At the behest of the United States, Calderón’s use of the Mexican military and
its harsh tactics against the drug lords has merely led to the slaughter of Mexican civilians without putting much of a dent in the long-term flow of
drugs into the United States.
This militarized bloodbath is causing some in the United States—even a few government officials—to privately reassess the failed U.S. war on drugs. As
during alcohol prohibition from 1919 to 1933 in the United States, organized crime has been given a big boost; continued demand for the illegal
product exists and so do huge profits to be made off excessively high prices that could be charged for the dangers of smuggling it to customers past
government authorities.
Mexicans correctly believe that the root of the problem lies in the continued demand for illegal drugs in the United States. If the U.S. government
did away with a victimless crime and allowed adults the right to put into their bodies what they wanted, demand for drugs would go up somewhat but the
violence would plummet. No one would pay elevated prices to gangsters—Mexican, Colombian, American, or otherwise—to traffic legal substances. Society
could then treat drug addiction as a medical problem instead of a crime, with education campaigns and treatment programs reducing the long-term demand
for drugs. Finally, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, but that’s because many of the people in prison are being held
unnecessarily for drug-related crimes—that is, jailed for consuming or trafficking substances that shouldn’t be illegal in the first place. Legalizing
drugs would eventually lower the U.S. prison population by getting rid of those faux crimes and also by reducing the robberies and violence associated
with stealing money to pay inflated prices for what is now illegal contraband.
So until the United States adopts the enlightened policy of drug legalization—don’t hold your breath—the Mexican government is faced with the
unpalatable options of knuckling under to U.S. pressure to continue the rising slaughter and instability of a militarized drug war or cutting a deal
with cartel leaders to ensure peace. As bad as it seems, the latter alternative is better for Mexico and the United States. More drugs may get through
into the United States, but the killing and instability just south of the U.S. border, which is coming north, would be reduced.
In short, corruption is better than slaughter. The U.S. government took this route in Iraq by paying off its enemies, the Sunni Awakening guerrillas,
to stop attacking American forces and turn on their even more violent al-Qaeda brethren. Violence was reduced, and the U.S. military was able to
extricate itself with honor from a bloody quagmire. Similarly, Peña Nieto may adopt the traditional way the PRI has dealt with drug lords in Mexico,
reaching agreements with them to ensure the peace and extracting the Mexican military from an equally bloody and fruitless fight. If Peña Nieto
pursues this course, the U.S. government will likely unfairly and hypocritically criticize him for doing so.DavidE - 7-10-2012 at 12:56 PM
Hey P-nche cabron, you are @#$%^%! in my plaza! Here take this (corruption) and that (more corruption). Now let all interlopers see what happens to
@#$%^&! that @#$%^&! with my plaza!
Give a sicario a flower. It will make him happy. He will drop his AK47 and grab a hold of beads and incense.
I take it back about arming drones. Let's bomb the hell out of them with Bath Salts laced with garlic salt.sancho - 7-10-2012 at 01:40 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by thebajarunner
Mexicans correctly believe that the root of the problem lies in the continued demand for illegal drugs in the United States
That has been my perception all along, don't know about
the legalization of drugs in the US, but as I remember
the US War on Drugs began with R. Nixon, can't see much
as in NADA of it having any measure of success.
Kinda supply and demand, free market place.
David E, you lost me after P-nche cabronDavidE - 7-10-2012 at 02:19 PM
Less than 1% of the fatalities are caused by the police. The rest are caused bad guy versus bad guy. Let me spell it out for you...
The whole drug business has changed in México. If drugs were subsidized in the USA and FREE bales and bottles were left on everyone's porch like what
the milkman used to do, then there would be a chance of reducing DRUG ONLY deaths in México.
If pot costs fifty an oz the cartels will smuggle it in and sell it for forty, then thirty, then (how low do you want to go here?). Marijuana is a
potential HUGE tax revenue source. When taxes on liquor and tobacco are eliminated than I would admit tax free mota would have a chance. Keep
dreaming. Even Humboldt pot growers are foaming at the mouth against free and unrestricted legalizing of marijuana.
C'mon people use your freakin' head. Nixon didn't drive the cost of pot up. It's people's natural greed. Really interstellar grade weed is expensive
because of all the work and energy that goes into gene modification and nurturing it.
But a Mexican farmer starts out with a hundred costales of seed. Enough to plant twenty acres. He works for a sum of about twenty dollars a day
because he has his extended family helping him. Who in the USA is willing to compete with this? No one. Who can grow ANYTHING as cheap as this? No
one. Not even close.
The idea of stopping the drug war between gangs down here is laughable. It's absurdly naive. But for the cheap at any cost pot smoker and crankeroo,
it's about as likely as a Wall Street broker demanding to verify the funds he is handling are totally morally acquired.
Want to do something positive? Grow your own. That way you know for a fact that your dollars aren't buying bullets and grenades that kill. Dollars
that go to drug cartels down here is absolutely like sending dollars to companies who make "hellfire missiles" for use in Afghanistan. The hypocrisy
is nauseating.CortezBlue - 7-10-2012 at 10:17 PM
I have to say that I agree with all of the comments above.
It is pretty simple
1. Legal or illegal, people are going to do drugs. Legalize them, have folks in the USA grow it and sell it to the govt. Granted, this would only
fix the Pot market, as I don't think harder drugs should be legal.
2. corruption or no corruption, the cartel is going to do their thing. Allow them to do it in a controlled fashion
3. Mexico and I, needs a break. I am so tired of trying to explain to everyone why we like to go to Mexico.SFandH - 7-11-2012 at 06:41 AM
My two cents is that the problems caused by the drug war in Mexico are due to the drug war in Mexico. Just stop that and let them traffick. If they
murder, kidnap, or extort non-cartel people go after them, otherwise let them do their thing.
What happens in the US as far as legalization is irrelevant.
