U.S. Braces For Mexican Shift In Drug War Focus

New York Times:

MEXICO CITY — The top three contenders for Mexico’s presidency have all promised a major shift in the country’s drug war strategy, placing a higher priority on reducing the violence in Mexico than on using arrests and seizures to block the flow of drugs to the United States.

Read the whole story at New York Times

Comments

[addisonsteele]

06:57 PM on 06/26/2012

The odds are high that the soldiers posing by the bloodstains committed the killings. The Mexican army kills many more Mexicans every year than the cartels.

[Jeremy Echols]

05:15 PM on 06/12/2012

Well I've been saying this forever. Mexico needs to do what's right for Mexico, not try to keep the U.S. drug free. I don't know that this policy will be very successful with how powerful the cartels have gotten, but they need to stop trying to fight our drug war.

[Yossarian22]

01:43 PM on 06/12/2012

I fear it's too late. Prohibition only breeds supergangs the same way that antibiotic abuse breeds superbugs: the organizations adapt under prohibition, become increasingly violent and uncontrollable while also latching their tentacles onto any legitimate business as an anchor. The idea that we can somehow pacify and come to an arrangement with organizations like the Zetas(who make most of their money from kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking and protection) is not very realistic. I don't have any solution really except going back in time and preventing the Drug War from ever erupting. Legalizing marijuana would deprive the cartels of a lot of their profit, but it wouldn't be the end of Mexico's troubles and, as I mentioned earlier, the extremely dangerous Zetas would actually gain an advantage since they're less dependent on the pot trade than their rivals.

[Jeremy Echols]

05:16 PM on 06/12/2012

It won't put an end to anything immediately, but it will at least stop giving them such easy money. That is a big win in itself.

[Razpooten]

07:06 PM on 06/11/2012

On both sides of the border the real "gangs" are invisible. Drug thugs are not able to move, launder and profit from billion dollar international transfers. The real movers are bankers politicians, et al.

[az10]

12:34 AM on 06/13/2012

I agree. The common citizen can not have a $1000 bill we must all use $100s because of the useless war. People are too afraid to get help or too ashamed because of our laws but still they can get the substances and many times overdose alone in shame while other junkies scatter so they dont get caught with drugs. That is the biggest crime (on our side of the border anyway) If we didnt punish the sickest among us with bondage and poverty (fines) we might gain a better understanding in treatment. Bullets always give the same results and drugs keep on coming.

[Razpooten]

02:45 AM on 06/13/2012

I think you don't understand what I said. The people capable of moving multi billions across international borders are bankes and politicians.

[ceekreewd]

04:23 PM on 06/11/2012

Successful smuggling will explode and the price of drugs here will plummet ------ who says the 'free market' doesn't work.......

[jerryengelbach]

04:14 PM on 06/11/2012

“Will there be a situation where the next president just turns a blind eye to the cartels, ceding Mexico to the cartels, or will they be a willing partner with the United States to combat them?” Representative Ben Quayle, an Arizona Republican, asked at a hearing this month in Phoenix. “I hope it’s the latter.”
==============================
Legalize drugs in the U.S., Congressman, and the problem is solved.

Calderon's drug war indeed helped to accelerate the violence. In Mexico the cartels are stronger than the government, and the prudent course is to let the drug lords fight it out among themselves.

[StopMakingSense2]

04:03 PM on 06/11/2012

As long as we can keep the gun trafficking going we will be happy!

[kurr]

03:58 PM on 06/11/2012

can we break out the drones in Mexico?

[Fran Jaime]

04:50 PM on 06/11/2012

Oh, please! And kill lots of civilians! That will go over very well!

[Razpooten]

07:07 PM on 06/11/2012

Sure, if you will deploy them on this side of the border as well.

[Asti28]

03:50 PM on 06/11/2012

The Mexicans are correct, our strategy is failing and has been failing for decades it is time for a drastic change yet no one will do anything.
If the war on drugs as itbis today ended the prisons would empty, the court calendars would open, lawyers and cops would be unemployed and fhe treatment facilities would fill.
Legalize it, tax it, educate and treat our people.
Make drugs a bad commodity to invest in and the crime will diminish.

[theobserver4]

03:38 PM on 06/11/2012

I hope Mexico finds the cajones to legalize, not just decriminalize but completely legalize. Prohibition simply does not work. PERIOD.

[Fran Jaime]

04:52 PM on 06/11/2012

It doesn't but much as we might want to it is quite difficult to do with the US breathing down our neck! Why do you think several Latin American countries are discussing this? It'd be more difficult for the US to take aggressive action if several countries do it at the same time.

[Razpooten]

07:08 PM on 06/11/2012

Following your period, that is not a plausible solution.

[theobserver4]

10:09 PM on 06/11/2012

Not with the generation of gray hairs we've got now...but it will come

[TurnSeiki]

03:36 PM on 06/11/2012

They're fighting the drug war the way we fought the Iraq war; the WRONG way. If you're going to fight the enemy, CRUSH the enemy. You don't fight a war with the intent of losing the least amount of lives. You fight a war by inflicting maximum damage in the shortest amount of time. I say they drop tactical nukes on all the safe houses and factories. They're fighting people willing to behead their enemies with 9mm's and assault rifles? THEY have those weapons too; and a lot MORE of them! But, let's see how long it takes the violence to spill over into the U.S. with these proposed "Kindler/Gentler" drug enforcement.

[solar 2011]

08:46 AM on 06/12/2012

Are you really that much of a fool? Use nukes? That is your suggestion? To begin with Mexico does not have any, but lets pretend it did or that it could borrow a few from the US, problem with nukes is that you don't only kill your target, you immediately kill and destroy everything in an extremely large area while causing even more deaths and congenital defects over time in an even larger area. (Why do you think no country with nukes has ever used one since the orignal two A-bombs used in WW2 genious?) So sure you kill the criminals but destroy the city along with them, so instead of having about 50,000 deaths over a six year period (and the majority of them criminals), you'd rather have say 2 - 6 million (Monterrey's metro area which is a major cartel battleground) killed in a couple of seconds. Brilliant plan. Finally, ever heard of fallout? Most of the cartels' strongholds are near or right at the US border so I guess you don't mind wiping off a great portion from southern California to southern Texas do you?

[Kenz300]

03:31 PM on 06/11/2012

The police are corrupt.

The business leaders are corrupt.

The politicians are corrupt.

and the people are starting to wake up from their apathetic coma.........

[StopMakingSense2]

04:08 PM on 06/11/2012

... only to find they are corrupt too!

[Razpooten]

07:09 PM on 06/11/2012

That is the case in Mexico as well.

[IfIonlyknew]

03:28 PM on 06/11/2012

If they are wanting the military out of it....You know the cartels have made it to politics.

[StopMakingSense2]

04:10 PM on 06/11/2012

Why not? It works for us.... or doesn't it? We are in no position to call others corrupt!

[IfIonlyknew]

04:45 PM on 06/11/2012

I am not a part of the drug war or the corruption.If you are to corrupt to say someone else is corrupt then that is sad.
"Legalize today and stop this insanity".

[Yossarian22]

01:51 PM on 06/12/2012

No, average Mexicans are as sacred of the army as they are of the cartel groups. When the army comes into town, mass graves always follow.

[Yossarian22]

02:50 PM on 06/12/2012

Arg, "scared" not "sacred."

[IfIonlyknew]

02:58 PM on 06/12/2012

And when they are not there, Heads are found in the streets.None of the killing will stop if america does not legalize...And quit funding the war on both sides.

[jaslyn]

03:25 PM on 06/11/2012

legalize drugs and the problem will take care of itself. Can't be more harmful than the legal poison put out by big Pharma that people ingest by the millions every day.

[dogwatch]

03:14 PM on 06/11/2012

We apologize deeply that our addiction to drugs has caused you to lose 50,000 souls.

[StopMakingSense2]

04:48 PM on 06/11/2012

So prohibition again? That was a success! As conservatism makes more and more lives miserable people find their escapes!

[Fran Jaime]

04:54 PM on 06/11/2012

Your apology is accepted gratefully. Now, could you get the warmongers off our backs? You know, the ones that one to solve everything through military intervention, bombings, etc?