Mexico's Inconvenient
Truth: Governor Rick Perry is Right
"Drug
cartels and their entire criminal networks have already taken possession of
vast portions of Mexican territory, amounting to 30 percent of the country's
total land area. These are places where the state is completely incapable of
guaranteeing the life and property of citizens."
Rick Perry raised more than a few eyebrows when he suggested that the United States might send U.S. forces to help defeat the Mexican drug cartels. Many people that are friends of Mexico agree with him.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelino Ebrard,
who aspires to be a candidate of the left in the presidential election next
year, asserts that the war against drug trafficking in his country cannot be
won without the help of the United States. This is an inconvenient truth for
both countries.
In the case of Mexico, direct
U.S. aid against drug trafficking with the deployment of troops, as proposed by
Texas Governor Rick Perry, would represent a serious intrusion on their
sovereignty. For the United States itself, a proposal like that would involve a
direct confrontation with the Latin American drug empire in a neighboring
country, with all the risks of a serious escalation of violence extremely close to
the Rio Grande border, which could extend even to U.S. territory.
But drug trafficking is a
problem in both countries. The expansion of its influence in Mexico is rooted
precisely U.S. drug consumption. Since the fall of the Colombian cartels in
Cali and Medellin in the 1990s, Mexican cartels control nearly all distribution
and sales of such drugs in the U.S. market. That has brought a huge amount of
money, which explains the great power they have acquired.
Since 2006 when the
government decided to declare war on drug trafficking with the direct intervention
of the Armed Forces, Mexican organized crime has accounted for 35,000 deaths
among criminals, police, soldiers and civilians. The death toll reflects the bloody
capacity of criminal groups to defend themselves and fight among themselves for
control of territory, and to maintain their rule of terror.
According to private agency
reports, drug cartels and their entire criminal networks have already taken
possession of vast portions of territory, amounting to 30 percent of the
country's total land area. These are places where the state is completely
incapable of guaranteeing the life and property of citizens, maintain control
of the roads and ensure the proper functioning of public services.
The aforementioned Texas
governor's proposal to send troops should be seen from an electoral
perspective, since Rick Perry is one of the contenders for the Republicans presidential
nomination. But the backdrop is U.S. “indigestion” with the ineffectiveness of
Mexico and its institutions to deal with drug trafficking. There are over
80,000 troops deployed in the fight against drug trafficking, but their work is
hampered by widespread corruption, the rivalry of various security agencies and
the Army's incapacity to win this merciless struggle. Among other things, that
is because soldiers don't know how to properly gather evidence incriminate
suspects. There are over 120,000 drug traffickers awaiting trial in jail.
Mexico runs the risk of
becoming a failed state in the fact or the growing resistance of delinquency
and organized crime to government authority. But this fight against drug
trafficking requires an international approach. And as the main drug
consumption market, it is a struggle that the United States cannot wash its
hands of. The solution requires an approach far more complex than simply the
deployment of U.S. troops.
