WikiLeaks and Mexico's Battle
Against Drug Trafficking
"One might expect that such communications would shed
light on how the U.S really sees the violence in Mexico and the drug war,
beyond the official discourse and the praises that Calderon sings in public. … What
surprises are in store for Mexico from these leaks? Certainly a lot, and certainly,
we'll learn much more from these documents than from official Mexican
government sources."
Founder, spokesperson and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange: While his organization's latest data dump is more gossip than news, he and WikiLeaks appear to be in much more hot water than they were after releasing Iraq and Afghanistan war logs.
In
the leaks of WikiLeaks, the greatest diplomatic scandal of recent times, the
name of Mexico and its relationship with the U.S. will soon emerge, when the
contents of the 2,285 cables issued by the U.S. Embassy in our country start to
be revealed. In large part, they refer to the war on drugs taking place with
the sponsorship of Washington on Mexican territory.
Yesterday,
the German magazine Der Spiegel was the first to mention Mexico as one
of the countries cited in the cables that lay bare the foreign policy of the
State Department. Also yesterday, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper El País,
Javier Moreno, confirmed that the leaks touch on, “the fundamental issue in
Mexico right now, the war against drug trafficking.”
What
can one say about these cables sent by U.S. government diplomats and spies in
Mexico? A lot.
Judging
by what appears in the communications of U.S. embassies in other countries - these
letters, notes, files and memoranda - one can say that these are situations and
themes that aren’t part of the official discourse of bilateral relations. In
fact, the scandal that has erupted around the world which Hillary
Clinton and President Obama were forced to handle personally yesterday, comes
because many of the leaks relate to intelligence gathering, at times due
to espionage carried out against both governments and important political
figures.
One might expect that such
communications would shed light on how the U.S really sees the violence in
Mexico and the drug war, beyond the official discourse and the praises that are publicly sung by Calderon. For instance, do the cables mention what's going on behind the
scenes of the Merida
Initiative and the commitments made by the Calderon government? Do those
communications say anything about the staff presence of U.S. agencies like the
CIA, FBI and DEA, or the operation of an espionage center on the Paseo de la Reforma?
[a boulevard that runs through Mexico City]
It will be necessary to check
and see if in some of those communications, the sending of elite-trained
U.S. forces to Mexico is mentioned. These military forces are subcontracted by private companies like Blackwater which
participate in the anti-drug and security operations of the Mexican Navy. What
we know so far, is that of the 2,285 cables emitted by embassies to Washington,
159 were from the Monterrey Consulate, 78 concern the Nogales Consulate, 10 regard
the Juarez Consulate, 32 the Guadalajara Consulate, 27 the Tijuana Consulate,
19 concern the Hermosillo Consulate, seven the Matamoros Consulate, five the Nuevo
Laredo Consulate and three from the consulate in Merida, among others.
Of all the information contained
in the WikiLeaks files about Mexico, 80 percent refers to the issue of drug
trafficking and communications made from the Embassy during the governments of Ernesto
Zedillo, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon. What surprises are in store for Mexico
from these leaks? Certainly a lot, and certainly, we'll learn much more from
these documents than from Mexican government sources.
