Not too long ago Mexico was regarded as the Latin American nation most likely to become a developed country. Now it is commonly seen, if not as a failed state, at least as a nation where some of the most powerful and ruthless criminals on the planet control important parts of the territory and critical public institutions.
What happened?
The answer does not matter just to Mexicans. The United States and Europe, both with large numbers of drug users of their own and therefore with powerful drug trafficking organizations in their midst, are also affected by what happens in Mexico, just like the rest of Latin America.
A frequent response is that the current Mexican tragedy is the result of decades of tolerance for the narco-traffickers. There was a tacit non-aggression pact that the Mexican government, politicians, business leaders, and the media had with the drug cartels. Others blame President Felipe Calderón who, without a clear plan, declared war on the cartels thereby breaking the truce that kept the country relatively calm for years. Another explanation is that the problem was imported: "It's the gringos," said a Mexican friend. "The United States buys our drugs and thereby creates these immensely rich criminals to whom in turn they freely sell machine guns and all kinds of advanced weapons that are used to kill our people." The bad economy of recent years is of course also a factor.
It is a question of moral values, say others. President Calderón, for example, recently stressed that Mexico must continue fighting the criminals and strengthening its institutions, but stressed that rebuilding the moral base of Mexican society was the main priority. "I'll tell you something that will make you think," said the president. "We captured a criminal who was just 19 years old and yet he boasted that he'd killed more than 200 people."
Who is right? Everyone. There is no doubt that Mexican leaders for decades succumbed to the temptation to believe their country was merely a "transit point" between the Andean farmers and American consumers. This illusion masks the fact that the criminals controlling the transit routes become rich and powerful and inevitably end up controlling politicians, judges, generals, governors, mayors, police, media companies, and even banks. Furthermore, in all the "transit" countries, part of the inventory stays there and is consumed locally, thus boosting demand at home while some imports are replaced by domestic production which creates an indigenous drug industry.
It is also true that President Calderón, by attacking the drug cartels, stirred up a hornet's nest which led to this terrible war. But it's just as true that without Calderon's reaction the capture of much of the Mexican state by the traffickers would have been complete and would have placed the nation even more at risk.
The fiercest critics of the president do not seem to give too much weight to the urgent need to contain the criminalization of the state. They say the price paid by the country has been too high and that Calderon's reclamation of key public institutions from the grip of the criminals is limited and will, in any case, be ephemeral.
Unfortunately, many Mexicans, terrified by the daily horrors and seduced by promises of a return to the calmer past thanks to a hypothetical -- and no longer realistic in practice -- truce with the drug cartels, have abandoned their president. Thus, this battle, one which should be fought by any decent society, has been instead reduced to "Calderón's war." And Calderón cannot win it alone.
Reclaiming the state and the many societal institutions now in the hands of criminals will require time, sacrifice, and commitment from all Mexicans: politicians and social leaders, journalists and the military, trade unionists and businessmen, housewives and university students. This cannot be Calderón's war, it must be Mexico's war. But Mexicans are angered by decades of economic frustration as mediocre policies and politicians fail to deliver on their promises of progress.
The country's murder statistics are of course shocking. 30,000 dead so far. But other data on Mexico is also striking: according Cristobal Pera, the CEO of Random House Mexico, there are no bookstores in 94 percent of municipalities and the percentage of people who actually read books is one of the lowest in Latin America.
According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, Mexico's workforce has one of the world's lowest rates of participation in non-profit organizations (0.04 percent in Mexico; more than 2 percent in Peru and Colombia). I cite these statistics only to suggest that Mexico's narcotics problem has wider and fiendishly complex ramifications ranging from irrational U.S. policies on drugs and arms sales; to the negligible consumption of books in the country; to the low quality of its educational institutions; to the precariousness of its civil society organizations.
There are no quick or simple solutions to these problems. But the inescapable reality is that this is not the president's problem. It's the entire country's problem. Unless this is recognized by Mexican leaders of all parties and social sectors, Mexico's violence will continue to be the beleaguered country's main story.
Moisés Naím is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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The elite of both countries profit from both country's failed immigration and drug policies. The middle class and poor of both countries pay the price.
The elite of both countries profit from their own politicians' economic policies. The middle class, the poor, and the environment if both countries pay the price.
Their immigration and drug enforcement systems are designed to be ineffective. That is how they the elite stay the elite and keep making their profit at our cost.
I have a plan that would throw such a huge monkey wrench in their immigration and drug war systems that they would have to change. This plan would require voters to think and really question the motives that run of "our" government.
But what the hell, let's have some peaceful, legal fun and watch them squirm. Who knows, things could actually get better. But we have to try something different.
There are posts in Spanish and Engligh:
http://twopesos-protestfortheundocumented.blogspot.com/2011/04/imagine-two-countries-saying-estamos.html
http://www.watchnewspapers.com/view/full_story/10513105/article-Former-Border-Patrol-Agent-Confronts-His-Past-With-Music?instance=local_news
Education is another piece in the puzzle, the cuts to education that PAN has enacted since 2000 to the already poor public education hace left Mexico without skilled human resources, loosing competitiviness in the world.
Now Calderon starts a "war" against drugs and he talks about "morals" this is not a matter of mroals, it's a matter of survival, if you don't have an education you cannot get a job, or the only job you can get is to work in the fields or crime. Since nobody is going to buy your crops, it leaves one solution, crime, which is lucrative.
This "war" on drugs is just a distraction from the real problems in Mexico, lack of jobs, lack of skills, lack of opportunities. Educate our children, train our people, support our farmers and our industry and people will stop working for drug dealers and organized crime, the goverment has left them no choice, we Mexicans have failed our children.
Prohibition does't reduce use or availability of the prohibited substances, in fact studies in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries have shown that prohibition causes usage to increase due to the thrill, forbidden fruit, of doing something you're not allowed to do and the unregulated and uncontrolled availability of the substances to children and adolescent youths.
If your aim is to protect our children and end or greatly reduce gangs and the related violence, it is imperative that the prohibition against drugs end. It needs to be replaced with a system of regulation and control. When a retailer of tobacco and alcohol makes a sale they are required by law to verify the age of the purchaser; drug dealers are not bound by any such regulations.
It only took 13 years for the realization that the 18th amendment, the Noble Experiment, was a failure and created far more problems than it was supposed to solve. The rise of violent crime in America during the years of alcohol prohibition, 1920 to 1933, was unmatched until the advent of Americas War Against Drugs and efforts to spread this war worldwide.
then it had a life of its own. for almost 30 years we could not have a rational discussion on the topic the big government anti capitalists were brain washing our kids.
legalize the drugs problem solved.
just as ending prohibition ended most of the mob violence in this country. legalization of drugs will do the same.
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"get (government) off our back and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions."
sarah palin on the laura ingraham show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa_Expedition
Most in that country are not allowed to own firearms. If, heaven forbid, any group were to target children in our country and we were not allowed to protect our families, I, for one, would find some way of obtaining a firearm. Open warfare? At least there would be a way to fight back - but the people in general in Mexico have no defense against the cartels.
Trust the police or military in Mexico? Too many have been shown to work with the cartels, not against them. Only 3% of those charged with crimes involving drug cartels have been prosecuted - which does not say much for the judicial system.
Legalize drugs? No one knows with certainty if that would work. All drugs, or just pot? Who knows? But we can see that this "war" is not being won, except by the cartels.
Education and action on the community level are what is needed, and thats just something you cant force to happen.
For instance - a person who appears before a judge and is charged with minor possession, not sale, could be sentenced to community service and also to a drug program. Or a person who has served a short sentence for a minor drug crime could have, as part of his/her probation or parole, attendance in such a program. Perhaps the casual user who has not been in trouble with the law but realizes it is only a matter of time and luck before he is and wants help.
Might those and other similar plans be a better use of our money and time and energy?
The War on Drugs is a war that's failed; a war that's filling up the nation's jails. --Michael Franti.
That is the way to eventually reduce drug usage and break the vast criminal enterprises based on drug money.
Plus experienece has also shown that legalising drug usage does not increase usage, it remains at about the same levels, just fewer people die from side effects.
Also street crime reduces as addicts do not have to mug and rob to fund their habit at the higher prices for illegal drugs.
you must like the current situation where your children can go down to the corner dealer to buy some crack illegally.
so much better
=================================
"get (government) off our back and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions."
sarah palin on the laura ingraham show
The solution to this whole mess is not to escalate the drugwar there, like this author suggests:
"Thus, this battle, one which should be fought by any decent society, has been instead reduced to 'Calderón's war.' And Calderón cannot win it alone."
Foolishness, pure and simple: Neither Calderon, nor any "decent society" can "win" a drugwar by criminalization/militarization, any more than the "war" on polio was won by putting victims of the virus in jail. The horrific violence is NOT caused by the drugs, but by the idiocy of trying to stop their use by prohibition enforced by police & the military--so long as there is a lot of money to be made (and prohibition inevitably increases the profitability of banned substances), there will be people who will make it by trafficking; and the greater the profits, the more ruthless and violent the traffickers.
"The only solution (isn't it amazing?)" is relegalization. Until then, look forward to more & more violence, mass death and destruction--there and here.
Not only would legalization eliminate the Mexican drug trade and its associated violence and corruption, it would stop the financial and human drain of OUR insane incarceration and militarized policing. Let's put our resources into treating the social ills which cause drug abuse- not into building a police state.
I am a lifelong expat living in Mexico City. Been here 45 years.
Mexicans.
Whose political and bureaucratic structures are incompetent, indolent and riddled with corruption and nepotism.
Otherwise, it's all good.
I think you need to get a little more education on the subject pal.