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gnukid
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As the Violence Soars, Mexico Signals It's Had Enough of America's Stupid War on Drugs
As the Violence Soars, Mexico Signals It's Had Enough of America's Stupid War on Drugs
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/102857/as_the_violence_...
Even on his most homicidal of days, Al Pacino's character in Scarface couldn't even approach the level of drug trafficking-related brutality bleeding
down Mexico's streets. It is no longer unusual for the Mexican news media to report on yet another, freshly decapitated head stuck atop a fencepost or
a metal spike, or a garbage bag filled with body parts, usually with a hand-scrawled note or placard attached. That amounts to a cartel's calling
card, and it's usually delivered in the form of a warning to a rival cartel, or for the Mexican authorities to stay away and stop seizing their drugs.
Other times, it's just a chilling placard intended to strike terror into the hearts of the people who come across the gory scene and the text: "Ha Ha
Ha." To be sure that their message is heard, cartels are known to send regular text messages to newspaper reporters, place newspaper advertisements,
or to even upload their own killing videos (sometimes accompanied by narco-corridos as background music) to YouTube.
Mexican drug cartels are, rather effectively, fighting the government's War on Drugs with their own War of Terror, often swelling their ranks (and
combat/terror tactics) with former members of law enforcement. The Zetas, for instance, are members of former Mexican counter-narcotics squads (some
with U.S.-assisted training under their belts), who have become the self-proclaimed and much-feared hit men of the Gulf cartel.
So far this year, roughly 3,500 murders have been directly attributed to the drug war in Mexico, surpassing last year's estimate of 2,500. (These
numbers include the murders of at least 500 soldiers, cops, judges, politicians -- and their family members -- in nearly two years. The drug war rages
across Mexico's urban and (mostly) rural terrain, and murders are usually targeted toward pronounced rivals, but increasing numbers of victims are
innocent bystanders, including women and children who were previously considered off-limits where acts of drug war-related retaliation were concerned.
Reports of attacks are rolling in daily, sometimes several times a day. This Sunday, unidentified gunmen shot up the United States consulate in the
northern Mexican city of Monterrey. While no injuries were reported there because the consulate was closed, six young adults attending a private
celebration were killed on Saturday in the violence-and-drug-plagued Mexican border state of Chihuahua, in Ciudad Juárez. Those murders, as yet
unsolved, followed on the heels of 11 homicides in a Chihuahua bar, when a gunman opened fire on unsuspecting patrons, including a prominent
journalist who may or may not have been a specific target.
It should be of note that much of the worst drug war violence is happening right at the border: Tijuana, adjacent to San Diego, saw nearly 40 people
murdered in the last week of September alone, in addition to nearly 25 deaths of male and female prisoners the previous week due to two major riots at
the vastly overcrowded Tijuana State Prison. (Prisoners alleged frequent incidents of torture and sexual violence, sometimes leading to death, at the
hands of guards.)
American newspapers located in border cities and states tend to report some of the more gruesome events and mass killings, but the rest of this
country seems remarkably in the dark about what's happening to our Mexican neighbors, much less the fact that the violence has increased dramatically
since U.S. drug war dollars have increased in the form of support for Mexican President Felipe Calderón's militarily-minded crackdown on trafficking,
with the goal of dismantling the cartels' leadership apparatus, as well as breaking apart close alliances between local authorities, cops, and drug
traffickers. (Corruption in Mexican law enforcement and military is epidemic; consider that many police officers in Mexico make no more than $5,000
per year.)
Since President Calderón took office in December 2006, he has authorized large-scale troop deployments (roughly 30,000 troops), in an attempt to
diminish the power lorded over Mexico and its citizens by rival Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, as well as affiliates like La Familia, which has earned a
reputation for particularly memorable and gruesome acts, including the night that five decapitated heads were thrown onto a dance floor packed with
people.
Seizures of illicit drugs, particularly cocaine, have indeed increased. But so has the bloodshed and the level of fear: a national poll published on
October 4th indicated that more than 40% of Mexicans felt less secure since Calderón's drug war offensive began. Another poll published by the Mexico
City daily, Reforma, showed that more than half of Mexicans believed that the cartels, not the government, were winning the drug war.
Still, as one would imagine, the Bush Administration has responded favorably to Calderón's crackdown on drug cartels, ushering in the three-year
"Merida Initiative" to support counter-narcotics efforts in Mexico and Central America: "The Merida Initiative complements U.S. domestic efforts to
reduce drug demand, stop the flow of arms and weapons, and confront gangs and criminal organizations," as the State Department explained in April
2008.
This past June, Bush struck a deal with Calderón to approve $400 million toward additional drug war assistance (representing a 20% increase in the
Mexican anti-narcotics budget) -- for still more helicopters, military training, ion scanners, canine units, and surveillance technology.
Considering their close ties, President Calderón's announcement earlier this month must have come as a bit of an unwanted surprise to the Bush
Administration. On October 2, Calderón proposed legislation that would decriminalize drug possession, ostensibly for personal use. Not just for
marijuana, as one might have expected in a country where pot smoke has not been demonized to the same degree as in the U.S., but for cocaine,
methamphetamine, and heroin, as well.
To be more specific, Calderón's proposed legislation, supported by the Mexican attorney general's office, is intended to address a different kind of
drug crisis on Mexican soil: a growing number of addicts. Cocaine once solely destined from Columbia and other Andean nations toward the U.S. is still
flowing in such great supply that it has ended up attracting more users -- and abusers. In addition, meth lab crackdowns in the U.S. have allowed
narco-cartels to step in and fill the void, so that speed is now more readily available in Mexico, as well. The impact has been dramatic: according to
the government's own statistics, the number of drug addicts in Mexico is estimated to have doubled in just six years to 307,000, while the number of
people who have tried drugs at some point rose from 3.5 million to 4.5 million.
If passed, Calderón's legislation would decriminalize up to 2 grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine, 40 milligrams of meth, and 50 milligrams
of heroin. To qualify, any individual arrested with those drugs would have to agree to a drug treatment program to address admitted addiction or enter
a prevention program designed for recreational users. Those who refused to attend one of these kinds of programs would be subject to a fine.
This proposal isn't the first of its kind in Mexican political history. In fact, former President Vicente Fox also supported limited decriminalization
just over two years ago, but his efforts were quashed in the wake of unrelenting pressure from the White House and the Office of National Drug Control
Policy. It's a safe bet that pressure of this kind has already started up where Calderón's proposal is concerned.
"President Calderón's proposal to decriminalize personal possession of illicit drugs is consistent with the broader trend throughout Western Europe,
Canada, and other parts of Latin America to stop treating drug use and possession as a criminal problem," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of
the Drug Policy Alliance, a national drug policy reform organization. But it contrasts sharply with [the approach taken in] the United States [the
U.S. government] should think twice before criticizing a foreign government for its drug policy, much less holding out the U.S. as a model. Looking to
the U.S. as a role model for drug control is like looking to apartheid South Africa for how to deal with race."
Or, for that matter, looking toward U.S. intervention in Columbia as a model for how to deal with Mexican drug cartels. In effect, the U.S. government
waded into a long-running civil war when it started to throw money toward anti-narcotics military training, aviation training, weaponry, surveillance
technology, and the availability of Monsanto's coca-killing herbicide, Round-Up. Ostensibly, all of this assistance was for the "good guys." American
taxpayers, as always, were expected to overlook the death squad part of the equation, the part about the right-wing paramilitary leaders who took
their U.S.-supplied training and weapons and turned them into family and local economy-displacing attacks akin to, or worse, than that of their sworn
enemies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC).
The end result: Columbia's cities, towns, jungles, and streets were turned into even more militarized, more deadly versions of themselves. The U.S.
government still declared victory when the leadership of the cocaine-producing Medellín Cartel was dismantled (or killed) from the 1980s to the early
1990s.
That particular cartel was brought down, and city streets are safer today than they were in the 80s and 90s, but Columbia's problems have hardly gone
away. Blood still flows as a result of territorial battles between FARC and right-wing militias, often over the control over land suitable for growing
plentiful coca crops. At this very moment, there are some 300,000 displaced Columbians, meaning the country has the second-worst internal refugee
crisis in the world, right behind Sudan.
Since 2000, in fact, the U.S. has continued to pour huge sums of money into Columbia: over $5 billion since 2000, making it the biggest recipient of
drug war funding (from the U.S. to a foreign country) in the 21st century. Has it paid off? Consider that in June, the United Nations released data
indicated that coca cultivation actually increased nearly 30% in 2007 to 244,634 acres.
Columbia not only remains the world's largest coca producer, but its farmers have apparently succeeded in creating herbicide-resistant hybrid coca
plants that defy Monsanto's poisons. Ninety percent of the cocaine consumed by Americans (half the cocaine consumed in the world goes up American
noses) is now flowing this way from Columbia. And much of that cocaine is, indeed, passing through Mexico. (It is estimated that 80% of
methamphetamine reaching the U.S. is coming from Mexico directly.)
Last week, the two-day security meeting of the Organization of American States kicked off with the frank admission that Mexico's narco-cartels are
primarily buying their cocaine from FARC and right-wing paramilitary groups.
So, too, are Mexican cartels using what were once considered to be Columbian narco-terror tactics, including the use of "Columbian neckties" and the
killing of innocent civilians. In fact, the drug war in Mexico is beginning to look, feel, and sound like the worst of the drug war in Columbia in the
1980s and 1990s. In late August, eleven headless, shirtless bodies were found handcuffed together in the Merda suburb of Chichi Suarez, in Yucatan
State. The nature of the as-yet-unsolved crime is considered to be one drug cartel's "warning sign" to a rival group.
Mexican civilians have even become the recent victims of explosives detonated in public spaces, something that had not previously been a concern. The
use of larger-scale explosives as a method of terrorist attack started just two months after Calderón took office, leading up to last month's
terrifying explosion in a crowded plaza in Morelia, the capital city of Michoacn. The attack in broad daylight was timed to coincide with Mexican
Independence Day festivities: over 100 people, primarily working-class men and women who had gathered for the free celebration, were wounded in the
attack. Eight people were killed, including a 13-year-old.
As was the case in Columbia, journalists are being increasingly targeted for exposing narco-cartels (or links with officials and law enforcement, as
the case may be). The Chihuahua bar shooting last Thursday claimed the life of David Garcia Monroy, a well-respected columnist at the daily newspaper,
El Diario de Chihuahua. That same day, the editor of La Noticia de Michoacn, Miguel Angel Villagomez, was kidnapped as he left work in the port city
of Lazaro Card##as. And, on September 23, a popular Mexican radio host, Alejandro Zenn Fonseca Estrada, was shot to death with AR-15 rifles, at close
range, in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco. According to witnesses, a van pulled up alongside Fonseca as he was hanging anti-violence posters on a
major street. (According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of the posters read, "No to Kidnappings"). The murder remains unsolved.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexico ranks 10th on CPJ's "Impunity Index," a list of countries where journalists are
attacked or slain on a regular basis and those crimes consistently remain unsolved.
Calderón's call for decriminalization won't put a direct dent in this kind of violence, but former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, author of
Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Expos of the Dark Side of American Policing, says that it's a step in the right direction toward alleviating the overflow
of non-violent drug offenders in Mexican courtrooms, jails, and prisons -- something that's beginning to resemble the criminal justice landscape of
the United States. Stamper, an active member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), says that those comparisons need to be drawn. "Our drug
policy, predicated on the prohibition model, has caused far more harm than good, locally and globally, " he says. "The results? The same as Mexico's:
higher potency drugs, more readily available, and at cheaper prices than ever."
Statements like these, particularly coming from prominent members of law enforcement, would have been almost unheard of in the not-too-distant past.
But these days, American public is sending strong signs that they, too, are ready for a truly different approach to drug and sentencing policies, as
well as strategies on mental illness and/or substance abuse treatment. According to a nationwide Zogby poll released on October 2, three out of four
U.S. voters believe that the war on drugs is failing, while over one-quarter agree that legalizing at least some drugs is the best alternative to the
current strategy.
While Stamper supports Calderón's call for decriminalization, fellow LEAP activist and board member Terry Nelson says that he doesn't believe in
"incremental steps," explaining that nothing short of complete legalization will bring an end to the profit-driven violence associated with the global
drug trade, valued at around $500 billion per year. "To use a drug is not to abuse a drug," says Nelson. "Calderón is just trying to take some
pressure off the court system with legalization, [most] of the actual crime and violence would be taken away, almost overnight."
A 32-year veteran of the military and various branches of law enforcement, Nelson's career took him on narco-traffic interdiction training and
surveillance missions across Mexico, Central and South America. Nelson admits that he was involved in the Mexican Aviation Training Initiative,
"designed to improve our counterparts in Mexico's professionalism in enforcing Mexican drug laws."
Some of the people Nelson helped to train ended up as Zetas, as he later found out.
Now retired and living in Fort Worth, Texas, Nelson served for five years as the Field Director of Surveillance Support Branch East (SSB East). During
that time, he says, SSB East successfully seized of over 230,000 pounds of cocaine throughout Latin America. Nelson's biggest, personal drug
trafficking bust happened off the coast of Ecuador, resulting in the seizure of 30,000 pounds of cocaine.
Much to his dismay, even such a large-scale bust yielded absolutely nothing by way of a drop in street supply -- or an increase in price. "If that big
a bust doesn't affect the street trade," he muses, "what chances do you have doing it a gram or a kilo at a time?"
To put it another way, he asks, "if we hadn't called it a war to begin with, could we admit that we're not winning?"
See more stories tagged with: mexico, war on drugs, calderon
Silja J.A. Talvi is an investigative journalist and the author of Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (Seal Press: 2007).
Her work has already appeared in many book anthologies, including It's So You (Seal Press, 2007), Prison Nation (Routledge: 2005), Prison Profiteers
(The New Press: 2008), and Body Outlaws (Seal Press: 2004). She is a senior editor at In These Times.
[Edited on 10-14-2008 by gnukid]
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Skeet/Loreto
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Gnukid:
Since in you learned experience you are of the opinion that the War on Drugs is Stupid.
What is your Solution to this Problem??
Skeet
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CaboRon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Skeet/Loreto
Gnukid:
Since in you learned experience you are of the opinion that the War on Drugs is Stupid.
What is your Solution to this Problem??
Skeet |
Education
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oldlady
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Education..I agree...close down the high schools, colleges and universities which have become "drug stores".
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flyfishinPam
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my solution to the problem is history. we should study past events and learn from them. the prohibition era in the usa comes to mind. how was that
solved? i need to order some good books on the topic as it truly interests me. yes it has become a war zone in many places and the citizens who are
not part of it are being caught in the crossfire more and more. it needs to stop.
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Packoderm
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At the very least - just copy what Switzerland is doing. They don't seem to have drug wars raging in the streets.
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capn.sharky
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Solution: How about "just say no".
If there is no fishing in heaven, I am not going
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Bajajorge
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Maybe gnukid and Harry Reid could get together and wave a white flag.
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vandenberg
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Packoderm
At the very least - just copy what Switzerland is doing. They don't seem to have drug wars raging in the streets. |
No, they have the druggies strung out all through the city parks.
Maybe we should put them all in Texas ( need lots of room ) and put a electrified fence around it 
Or one of those proposed moates with alligators
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baitcast
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Peer pressure is one thing on a kid to take that first hit but in the final analysis Mom and Dad must set the course for their kids,grass roots here
as well as down there.
No demand no problem,long term cure for sure but you have to start somewhere....for today just take out the bad guys!!
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redmesa
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If all the money that has spend spent doing a "crime and punishment" strategy with drugs had been spent on education, support, medical treatment, and
meaningful employment we would not have a large drug issue. It is a symptom of our sick society that people in all social stratas are choosing some
form of medication to deal with their lives. All the pushers are not on the streets or in our schools. If the well connected and wealthy can get
their scripts, why criminalize the others who are trying to do the same.
Bravo to those that see that "crime and punishment" way has not worked ....time to look at radical options.
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vandenberg
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| Quote: | Originally posted by redmesa
time to look at radical options. |
Maybe ...shoot them or not radical enough
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Martyman
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Drugs and alcohol have been abused for centuries. Good things have come from "mind opening" experiences.
I work with a lot of people and cannot believe what jerks some people are that I have daily contact with. I try to figure out why these people are
such disrespectful dumbburros. I figured it out. During and after their formative years they never tried smoking pot or other recreational drugs
(I'm not talking about heroin, crack or speed).
I'm serious, these people that didn't experiment a little are screwed up bad. They think of themselves as great and have no openness to other ways or
compassion in their little lives.
Drugs that are abused, including alcohol, are where things go bad.
A little weed and acid is good for the soul people!
Some of the comments above about shooting people and locking them up are an example of the close mindedness I'm refering to from not trying
mind-opening elixers.
Whats the deal with the proposed regulations only allowing two grams of weed? That is only a couple doobies. Legalize an ounce.
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Skeet/Loreto
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Martyman; You said it all, but I am in the Dark>
What are those "Good things from Mind opening"??
Now being only 77 years young doing more "Things" in life than some, I wonder what could be more exciting than:
Milking Cows
Riding Horses
Killing, skinning and eating Rattlesnakes
Fighting at School
Playing with Young Girl Classmates behind the Woodshed
Fighting in the Golden Gloves at Soldiers Field Chicago
Driving cars without the Owners permission{Got Caught}
Fighting in the Korean War
Flight Engineer PBY6A Flying boats
ShorePatrolman San Diego
Working in Yosemite Natl Park
Ski Patrolman
Campus Policeman
I am getting tired typing, but I never have and never will have to take DOPE to be Happy and have a Good Time.
Does that mean I am Happy and Content with my self??
I think you are "DEAD WRONG". Hope you live as long as I and have some fun.
Skeet
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Pescador
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Pam is closer, in my humble opinion, to the crux of the matter. The issue is not whether or not someone chooses to use. You have the same choices
with alchohol, you can use it or not use it and the biggest problem came historically when the government tried to legislate its usage. Carrie Nation
and her wiley group of sidekicks surely felt that the destruction of mankind was due to the evils of alcohol and when we look back at the issue from
our current perspective, we can not help but wonder what everyone was getting so worked up about. Prohibition was repealed and the only major changes
were in who made the money since the gangsters and the underworld were no longer involved in the sale and distribution. We still have problems with
alcohol addiction and all you have to do is read this forumn for awhile to realize that there are lots of people who have lost serious amounts of
brain cells, but all in all the industry is managed pretty well.
Drugs, on the other hand seem to be the current prohibition movement and the enforcement has set up a serious struggle between the government and
the distribution and sales, namely the cartels. The parallels are uncanny and I wonder about how myoptic the governments can be that they allow the
killing and mayhem to continue. Mexico sure seems to be thinking outside of the box if they really manage to go through with this legalization.
Literally, overnight the killing and carnage would have to stop and the governments could go about taxing this junk that people seem so bound and
determined to buy. At least the governments could do what they do best, let things go, tax the sale and distribution, and waste the money they take
in.
I personally would never buy, but that is not the issue here any more than the issue of tobacco which I do not buy either.
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HCR
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As has been stated in so many places at so many times, if people want to take drugs, there will be drugs for them to take.
As with all "wars," the fundamental question remains--who is making money from the fighting?
Drugs will not be legalized in the U.S. as long as there are judges, prosecuting attorneys, criminal defense lawyers, drug counselors, jailers,
police, insurance companies, security alarm companies, etc. ad nauseum whose very livelihoods depend upon keeping drugs illegal.
Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.
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CaboRon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Martyman
Drugs and alcohol have been abused for centuries. Good things have come from "mind opening" experiences.
I work with a lot of people and cannot believe what jerks some people are that I have daily contact with. I try to figure out why these people are
such disrespectful dumbburros. I figured it out. During and after their formative years they never tried smoking pot or other recreational drugs
(I'm not talking about heroin, crack or speed).
I'm serious, these people that didn't experiment a little are screwed up bad. They think of themselves as great and have no openness to other ways or
compassion in their little lives.
Drugs that are abused, including alcohol, are where things go bad.
A little weed and acid is good for the soul people!
Some of the comments above about shooting people and locking them up are an example of the close mindedness I'm refering to from not trying
mind-opening elixers.
Whats the deal with the proposed regulations only allowing two grams of weed? That is only a couple doobies. Legalize an ounce. |
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Cypress
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Big Problem! The govt. can't control the supply. It's very easy to grow your own, a couple of seeds, some soil, add water, throw in a little light.
Bingo! Homegrown. No taxes. Crack, meth, gas fumes, glue? Gasoline and glue are both legal. 
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Martyman
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No Skeet...you said it all
Nothing like "Playing with Young Girl Classmates behind the Woodshed"
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toneart
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| Quote: | Originally posted by HCR
As has been stated in so many places at so many times, if people want to take drugs, there will be drugs for them to take.
As with all "wars," the fundamental question remains--who is making money from the fighting?
Drugs will not be legalized in the U.S. as long as there are judges, prosecuting attorneys, criminal defense lawyers, drug counselors, jailers,
police, insurance companies, security alarm companies, etc. ad nauseum whose very livelihoods depend upon keeping drugs illegal.
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Yep! follow the money. All of these pillars of a rigged society have a vested interest. They are all pushers.
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