Mexican protesters took to the streets in more than 20 cities on Wednesday to protest President Felipe Calderon and his drug war. The impetus for these marches was the death of Juan Francisco Sicilia, 24. Sicilia is only one of the roughly 35,000 Mexicans who’ve been killed in the violence, but his death struck a chord with the nation because his father happened to be the famous poet and journalist Javier Sicilia. And fittingly, as the demonstrators marched, authorities in northern Mexico found another mass grave with about 60 bodies.
The most frustrating aspect of the carnage in Mexico is that it remains a direct consequence of American drug policies. Even Calderon’s predecessor, Vicente Fox, has been outspoken about this very simple fact, but being right about how to defeat Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations is still not acceptable discourse in Washington. The Obama Administration has only been marginally better than previous administrations (although that may stop being true soon), still foolishly believing that this is a problem that can be solved by law enforcement (nope), even while claiming that they’re trying a different approach.
The 35,000 deaths since Felipe Calderon launched his ill-fated drug crackdown aren’t just his fault, they’re also ours. American drug policy rewards Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations with the billions of dollars in easy profits that they then use to battle each other for an even greater piece of the pie. Every time a major player in the trade is arrested, dozens step up to take his place and the violence escalates. Yet to the head of the DEA, Michele Leonhart, this is somehow seen as winning:
“It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs,” the DEA chief said.
The cartels “are like caged animals, attacking one another,” she added.
No, they’re not. And one has to have their head lodged really fucking far up their own ass to believe that. These are organizations that have so much money that they were able to launder their money directly through the U.S. banking system in order to buy airplanes. They’re not caged animals, they’re pretty goddamn free to do what they want. A lot freer than the Mexicans who took to the street today to protest against a gruesome quagmire that they have essentially no control over.
I don’t think that changing US drug policies is going to end the violence in Mexico. Perhaps fixing the banking system would.
More food for corvids.
I read somewhere a few years ago that the Banks and investment companies lobby HARD for keeping things the way they are with the drug cartels. They openly fight against any new regulations. Everyone can see this, its in the papers every day. Many of those regulations would crack down on the investment companies, who are totally exempt from cash transaction reporting laws that the banks are required to obey. so they tend to handle a LOT of cash. Much of that coming in from foreign countries.
The article stated that if you were to take all the drug money out of the US stock market, it would totally collapse. Something like 1/3 of all the liquid funds coming into the NYSE and NASDAQ are drug monies. This goes back 40 years. The worldwide drug market is the single largest industry in the world, money wise. Certainly it is the most lucrative.
Obama has lied about this like he has about virtually everything else.
Things sure have changed since he stated in 2004.. “The war on drugs has been an utter failure, we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.”
His continued war on medical marijuana users has been particularly outrageous..
An example.
Banks are so crooked, its a wonder nobody has started shooting at the executives yet. I guess all those political “contributions” really do pay off. Quite handsomely I suspect. Protection from laws is the oldest political game in the world.
The only way to win the War on Drugs is to not fight it.
@1: Legalizing drugs would eliminate the ridiculous profit margins that feed the violence.
Cracking down on assault weapons would at least reduce the number of such weapons flowing into Mexico to feed the violence.
Meaningful bank regulation and money-laundering statutes would reduce the ease with which the cartels move money around to feed the violence.
Meaningful immigration reform would hurt the side businesses of many of the cartels, and reduce the number of people driven into the drug trade by lack of other opportunities, both of which feed the violence.
Ending the violent rhetoric surrounding all things Mexico would reduce the hatred that leads to violence. You can only tell a group that they are your enemies for so long before it becomes true.
@6
Great comment, thanks.
“The most frustrating aspect of the carnage in Mexico is that it remains a direct consequence of American drug policies.”
Dude? WTF are you smoking?