Mexico, chief casualty of America's 'war on drugs'

With the death toll ever rising, it's high time the US stopped sponsoring a bloody, unwinnable conflict with the drugs cartels.
Mexican police guard a US embassy vehicle after it came under fire from gunmen on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, on 15 February 2011. A US immigration and customs enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the attack. Photograph: AP Photo/Teodoro Blanco Vazquez

John Ackerman

Tuesday's brutal attack on two US law enforcement agents in Mexico has led to the normal sabre-rattling. Representative Michael McCaul of Texas has called it a "game-changer" and a "wake-up call" to the "war on our nation's doorstep". Last week, James Westphal, undersecretary of the Army, had already spoken of an "armed insurgency" in Mexico, and the possibility of sending "armed and fighting" troops across the border to prevent a "takeover of government". Secretary Janet Napolitano continually speaks of the "war" south of the border. James Clapper, national intelligence director, recently announced that Mexico has been promoted to being a top national security threat.

Mexico has, indeed, reached a tipping point. But an escalation of the present military strategy will only make the situation worse. The best response to recent events is to end the war and proceed towards disarmament, instead of aggravating the conflict. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has declared the end of the metaphorical "war on drugs" within US borders. The time has come also to bring a stop to the very real war on the drug cartels south of the border.

The central problem with the military strategy is that it does not distinguish between violent and non-violent criminals, or serious and less harmful crimes. As Kerlikowske has pointed out, the Mexican cartels are not "insurgents" or "terrorists", but "multivalent criminal organisations", which have diversified into a wide variety of activities including kidnapping, extortion, piracy, human trafficking, money-laundering and government corruption, as well as the transportation and sale of illegal drugs.

Of all of these crimes, by far the least harmful for social and economic development is the transportation of drugs. Although drug consumption is clearly damaging, simply transporting illegal substances does not, in itself, create violence, economic crisis or human suffering. And even the harm of drug consumption pales in comparison to the effects of kidnappings, beheadings and human trafficking, especially when the consumption involves marijuana, sales of which make up two thirds of the profits of the Mexican cartels.

Nevertheless, due to pressure from the US government, the Mexican authorities have been forced to concentrate their scarce law enforcement resources on pursuing the least harmful crimes. This strategy has had the obvious consequence of pushing the criminals towards more dangerous and violent activities. The result: a stratospheric increase in violence, with over 35,000 assassinations in the past four years, 15,000 during 2010 alone. The problem in Mexico is, therefore, not a lack of firepower or support for the "war on drugs", but the very strategy of "war" itself.

The real priority should be on punishing violent crimes, not the transportation of drugs. By turning the typical strategy on its head, Mexico would slowly start to separate the violent, dangerous criminals from those drug traffickers who are in the business principally for the money. Although this might not bring down the prices of illegal drugs on the streets of US cities, it would help end the violence, which today is paramount and may at some point spill over to the US.

This proposal should not be confused with either legalisation or negotiation approaches. Increased liberalisation of marijuana consumption would reduce the urgency of controlling transportation routes, but this strategy is by no means dependent on the legalisation of drug use. And this idea in no way implies a pact with the cartels, in the style of the past authoritarian Mexican governments. On the contrary, the proposal is to increase, not reduce, the pressure on the most serious criminals.

Such a change in strategy would immediately receive vigorous applause from the Mexican people. A growing number of Mexicans have come to the conclusion that peace and prosperity are more important than stopping the flow of drugs towards eager consumers in the United States. A broad new citizen movement has even emerged, rallying around the cry of: "No more blood!" Movement leaders agree that the drug cartels need to be controlled – but in a way that does not destroy the very fabric of society. It makes no sense to win the war, if it leaves the country in shambles.

It is time for the Obama administration to listen to the Mexican people and not only to his military advisers. The roots of the problem obviously lie in the lack of regulation of the sale of assault weapons and in the high drug consumption in the US: 90% of weapons confiscated from Mexican cartels come from the US. But if it is not politically feasible to attend to these issues, the Obama administration can at least change the emphasis of its policy towards Mexico. The central objective should be the reduction of violence and the establishment of the rule of law. Without this, everything else is doomed to fail.

This World México's Drug

BBC's Report Special

BIENVENIDOS A TIJUANA
Claro que contamos con ¡Tequila, sexo y marihuana!!!



Capítulo uno versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/K4KgGwbgVUg

La reportera de la BBC Katya Adler y el camarógrafo Jonathan Ypung se internan en el corazón de Sinaloa para encontrar ese mundo mágico de los narcoticos que seduce a grandes emporios del mal al ser el México Rojo la puerta de acceso al mercado más grande del mundo que es E.E.U.U. ven a descubrir que está pasando en la guerra del Presidente Felipe Calderón. Declaraciones exclusivas del secretario García Luna, los cotos de poder aquella muerte espectácular de un obispo mexicano en un mal inteno logrado por controlar la plaza de Tijuana. Hoy en 2011 que el emperador del narcotráfico su santidad Joaquín Loera Gúzman el chapo se consolida como un barón del narcotráfico mundial.



Capítulo dos versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/3pHxtP7pJFs

"la doble moral de los maestros y profesores en México"

El Chapo Gúzman un hombre cuya cuna fue un estado que siempre ha vivido el narcotráfico, un dios del México Rojo cantan su gente que es el Señor de la Montaña después de su libertación surge la leyenda para entenderlo debemos saber que el siempre ha vivido en el mundo de las drogas. Ahí dónde los maestros saben que ganna poco pero quieren que sus hijos tengan un futuro aunque mueran o pierdan la libertad los hijos de los profesores ya conocierón Disneylandia y los estudios MGM. Joaquín Loera admirado, temido pero el secreto es que es muy querido por su gente una revelación de BBC.




Capítulo tres versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/HLi3TsfkC-0

México país de sombras de almas que esperan justicia en un mundo de brujos y de corrupción... ¡LA JUSTICIA QUE NO LLEGA!!! el hashtag de la media social ºn Twitter #MexicoRojo

Esas familias que llorán la perdida de un ser querido, los levantones a jóvenes que aparentemente llevan una vida de éxito y sus padres y amigos no saben que sucede en realidad... 7 años suficientes para morir por las balas de los sicarios. De que sirve que juntes el cobro del pago de derecho de uso de suelo si no fue en tiempo y la sentencia es la muerte. Descubre la historia del Pozolero... todo eso que la prensa mexicana en televisión calla. ¿Por qué callas Grupo Televisa?

"LA GUERRA sin antecedentes históricos es García Luna"





Plata o plomo en México Todo se puede comprar y lo que no ya sabe que morir es su final. Crónica de una muerte anunciada esas narco ejecuciones.



Capítulo cuatro versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/9KUGST2Mm4k

Ponerse en los zapatos de los mexicanos entender que la policia está infiltrada, los gobiernos acercarte a denunciar cuando en lagunas zonas tus vecinos, amigos y familiares también son narcotraficantes. Entenderá el mundo lo que es viir en México cuando el mundo entienda existiremos como nación. Mientras unos censuran la política inteior sobre el combate al narcotráfico y crimen en México por parte de la administración del presidente Felipe Calderón otros lo celebran. México tiene mucho pro caminar en una larga lucha.

El “Chapo” Guzmán

Capítulo cinco versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/rM1r3J_YZnQ

Los periodistas que buscan e investigan la información dura en el México Rojo que buscan la información de esas bodas que nunca suceden pero logran reunir hasta gobernadores de la federacion de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

Anabel Hernández reportera mexicana del semanario político REVISTA PROCESO

¿Que sucede en ese México? es la BBC la que opina y comenta... ? y tú que opinas.



Capítulo seis versión para móviles (SmartPhones) http://youtu.be/0oDXI7EBKIQ

Una esperanza para un México de corderos dónde los psicópatas introducen el caos.

Las escenas de una sociedad aostumbrada al dolor

Un México que clama justicia y a veces sus voces se ahogan entre la ambición por el poder político un trabajo de Katya Adler Reportera, Jonathan Ypung Camarógrafo Elena Cosentino Productora #BBC MMX.

El presente material no contiene ningún objeto de comercializar y lucrar con la información presentada responsable de sus autores y voces que aparecen en el documental presentado por © MMXI

Stop Subsidizing Mexican Drug Gangs

The horrifying drug-war violence south of our border with Mexico continues to worsen, and we're the ones subsidizing it.

By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet.

The horrifying drug-war violence south of our border with Mexico continues to worsen: beheadings, killings that now number several thousand at least, honest officials in fear for their lives. It's time to put an end to U.S. policies that subsidize these murderous drug gangs.According to U.S. and Mexican officials, some 60 percent of the profits that fuel these thugs come from just one drug, marijuana. While much is smuggled over the border, an increasing amount is produced in the U.S. by foreign gangs operating on American soil -- often in remote corners of national parks and wilderness areas.Every year, we read more headlines about clandestine marijuana farms being uncovered on these precious, environmentally sensitive public lands. These rogue farms not only pose a threat to hikers and the environment, they cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars each year in eradication and clean-up efforts.This appalling situation, which now carries a real risk of destabilizing Mexico, is not just happenstance. It is the direct result of U.S. policies.Like it or not, marijuana is a massive industry. Some 100 million Americans admit to government survey-takers that they've used it, with nearly 15 million acknowledging use in the past month.That's a huge market -- more Americans than will buy a new car or truck this year, or that bought one last year. Estimates based on U.S. government figures have pegged marijuana as the number one cash crop in America, with a value exceeding corn and wheat combined.Our current policies are based on the fantasy that we can somehow make this massive industry go away. That's about as likely as the Tooth Fairy paying off the national debt.We haven't stopped marijuana use -- indeed, federal statistics show a roughly 4,000 percent rise since the first national ban took effect in 1937 -- but we have handed a virtual monopoly on production and distribution to criminals, including those brutal Mexican gangs.There is a better way. After all, there's a reason these gangs aren't smuggling wine grapes.We've seen this movie before. During the 13 dark years of alcohol Prohibition, ruthless gangsters like Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran had a monopoly on the lucrative booze market. So lucrative, in fact, that these scoundrels would routinely gun each other down rather than let a competitor share their territory. Sound familiar?Today, the bloodbath is taking place in cities like Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico, but it's beginning to spill across our border. Prohibition simply doesn’t work – not in the 1930s and not now.The chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Mexico and Central America Section recently told the New York Times that marijuana is the “king crop” for Mexican cartels. He added that the plant “consistently sustains its marketability and profitability.”The situation is so intolerable that three former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have recently joined the chorus calling for a shift in U.S. marijuana policy.There is no reason to believe that our nation’s current marijuana policies are reducing the use and availability of marijuana. Indeed, in the Netherlands -- where, since the mid 1970s, adults have been permitted to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana from regulated businesses -- the rate of marijuana use is less than half of ours, according to a recent World Health Organization study. More importantly, the percentage of teens trying marijuana by age 15 in the Netherlands is roughly one-third the U.S. rate.By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating and taxing it as we do beer, wine and liquor, we can cut the lifeline that makes these Mexican drug gangs so large and powerful. And at the same time we'll have a level of control over marijuana production and distribution that is impossible under prohibition.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico, says U.S. to blame for drug wars

Soliders patrol the streets of Juarez, where violence due to drug cartels' control has sparked recent debate and brought international attention to the problem of drug trafficking.

By Richard Sisk

Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton brought mea culpas to Mexico Wendesday for the guns and money flowing south from the U.S. that have fueled the bloody drug wars between the cartels and the Mexican army.
"It's not only guns, it's night-vision goggles, it's body armor," Clinton said enroute to Mexico City in her third foreign trip as Secretary of State.
"These criminals are outgunning law enforcement officials," Clinton said of the street warfare in towns near the border that have claimed more than 6,000 lives in the past year.
"And since we know that the vast majority, 90% of that [weaponry] comes from our country, we're going to try to stop it from getting there in the first place," Clinton said.
Another factor fueling the bloody Mexican turf battles, Clinton said, is America's "insatiable" demand for illegal drugs.
Clinton's arrival in Mexico City for meetings with President Felipe Calderon competed for front-page space with the arrest of a major drug thug, Hector Huerta Rios, known as "La Burra [Female Donkey]."
Huerta Rios was said to be the drug kingpin in Monterrey, where Clinton will visit Thursday.
In remarks prior to Clinton's arrival, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa hailed the "constructive attitude" of the new administration of President Obama, which was seen as a dig at the administration of former President George W. Bush.
In addition to sitdowns with Calderon and Espinosa, Clinton will also be meeting with Mexico's top military and law enforcement officials in the drug war to coordinate on the U.S. administration's plan to send more immigration and drug to the border area.

Concern Grows in the U.S. That the Drug War Is Destablizing Mexico

By Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle.

AlterNet

45,000 Mexican military personnel have been dispatched to centers of drug violence across the country to stamp out the growing violence.

Concern about a potential failed state -- not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California's neighbor Mexico - is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States.
An estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico last year, six times the standard definition of a civil war, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a leading scholar on the issue at the Brookings Institution.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, described beheadings of Mexican mayors and police chiefs and said Mexican drug gangs have infiltrated the cannabis fields on both public and private lands in Northern California. He said Mexican villagers are kidnapped and smuggled into the northern coastal forests to grow pot, leaving environmental wreckage in their wake.
He said a timber company employee had been held at gunpoint by a Mexican gang, and he worried that hikers could be threatened. There also have been gang confrontations with firefighters.
"This isn't your '60s hippie growing a little pot on the back 40 to get through winter," Thompson said.
Two House committees will hold hearings today, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has scheduled a Senate hearing for Tuesday to determine how to respond. Ideas range from building a stronger border fence to decriminalizing marijuana.
Mexico "is in the paradoxical situation where the more it intervenes against the drug cartels, the more it destabilizes the drug market, which is the reason it's so violent," said Felbab-Brown. "Drug markets are normally not this violent. This is an aberration. The analogy is Colombia in the 1980s and early 1990s."
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands (San Bernardino County), told the Associated Press this week that the violence in Mexico is "a lot more important, in my own judgment, than Afghanistan at this moment."
Mexico and Pakistan
The U.S. Joint Forces Command called Mexico and Pakistan the world's two most critical states in danger of failing. While cautioning that Mexico has not reached Pakistan's level of instability, it reported that Mexico's "government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels."
The State Department issued a travel warning in February based on rising violence and kidnappings, especially along the border. It said innocent bystanders have been killed in attacks across the country.
Many, not least the Mexican government itself, take strong issue with labeling Mexico anything close to a failed state, though they acknowledge that the violence is serious and spreading.
"I'm in the heart of Mexico City as we speak, and the buses are full of people, the metros are running, the shops are open and people are walking freely," said George Grayson, a Mexico scholar at the College of William and Mary. "I don't see anything that looks like a failed state."
He said, however, that some areas have been overrun by drug cartels, including Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas, and municipalities in the states of Michoacan and Guerrero.
Others contend that Mexico is in danger of becoming a "narco state" where drug cartels control large parts of the country and the government cannot perform its most essential task, ensuring the safety of its citizens.
"There are different forms of weakening," said Felbab-Brown. Rather than a collapse of the government, she said, "I am more worried that you will have internal pressures within the elite and from the larger society for accommodations with the cartels."
Police corruption remains rampant in Mexico, and she warned that the government could retreat to what she called the "corporatist" model of the 1960s and 1970s, when police regulated and protected drug traffickers.
She said what worries her even more is that the government can neither defeat nor accommodate the drug cartels, and so "simply retreats, gives up territory." In that scenario, she said, state presence in parts of the country would be limited, and the government "abdicates its responsibility to be the sole purveyor of coercive force. That is very consistent with the historic trend in many Latin American countries."
Unlike past battles over immigration, Mexico's current problems are blamed increasingly on the United States: its enormous demand for illegal drugs and its availability of military-style weapons, including bazookas and grenade launchers, that are smuggled to Mexico and used to match or overwhelm the Mexican military.
Mexico also let the drug problem fester for decades, tolerating police corruption. Once established, police corruption is difficult to eradicate; matters have only grown worse with the rise in the drug trade. Well-funded gangs make offers of a "bullet or a bribe" and kill the few who choose the former, along with their relatives.
Drugs and assassinations
Grayson said the notorious Los Zetas group has diversified into assassinations and has begun to target army officers.
Retired army Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello was found tortured and shot last month near the popular spring-break resort town of Cancun. Tello had been hired to clean up the Cancun police force, whose chief has been arrested in connection with the murder.
The former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico recently called the nearly 40-year U.S. "war on drugs," begun in the Nixon administration, not only a failure but a threat to civil society in Latin America.
"My personal view is, it's us who is more responsible than Mexico," said Sidney Weintraub, a leading Latin American scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We're providing profits of about $25 billion to the drug cartels. That's a lot of money."
About 40 percent of the drug sales are marijuana, he said. "We imprison more people for marijuana than any other drug. What we have to do is change our policy and decriminalize marijuana. I don't think we can do much unless we cut back on the money. As long as they have all that money, Mexico is in a largely hopeless situation."
Weapons from U.S.
Moreover, Weintraub said, more than 90 percent of the weapons smuggled into Mexico "are sold by our gun dealers to people they know are sending the guns to Mexico. Against this array of money, violence, ability to bribe, being able to outgun the military on any occasion, it's hard for them to do anything. ... Our policy has to change."
There is almost no chance that either Congress or the Obama administration will decriminalize marijuana any time soon. Former President George W. Bush, at a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Merida, Mexico, in March 2007, promised $1.4 billion over three years to provide technology and training to Mexico. The first $197 million was allocated last year, but many describe the sum as a pittance next to drug revenue and say it has focused mainly on high-tech gadgets such as surveillance planes that are helpful but no solution.
Some say strengthening the border is a priority, but the cartels have even resorted to using submarines to evade land barriers.