by J. F. Kelly, Jr. | Coronado
The death count in just one city last month was approximately 150. The exact number isn’t known because other bodies may be discovered from time to time, some in pieces, some decapitated. The country-wide killings for the year number about 4,000, again only an approximation. Over 1000 occurred in a single city.
This is not Iraq or Afghanistan we are talking about here. It is our nearest neighbor to the south with whom we share a long and still porous border. It is Mexico where drug cartels control much of the countryside and have infiltrated government, police and military. This carnage is the consequence of a violent war against drugs which the drug gangs appear to be winning. The casualties, many of whom include innocent bystanders, have lost their lives largely because of the booming market for illegal drugs in the United States, something that should weigh very heavily on the consciences of America’s addicts and casual users.
Just as America’s addiction to cheap labor has fueled illegal immigration and human smuggling, so does America’s addiction to illegal drugs fuel a dangerous industry where ruthless gangs fight for control of the lucrative business. They think nothing of slaughtering rival gang members, police or anyone else who stands in their way or gets caught in the way. The police are often no match for the well-armed gangs whose weapons, like their customers, come mostly from the United States.
The gangs don’t stop at killing. They torture, maim and kidnap and their operations have spread across the border at times. Fear of violence has had a chilling effect on tourism in the border areas and some interior regions and for good reason. Cross border commerce is also being affected.
Recently, the federal police commissioner, the agency’s top officer, resigned amid allegations that drug gangs have infiltrated senior levels of the agency. This followed the arrest of five officials in the attorney general’s organized crime unit for allegedly passing information to a drug cartel. Meanwhile, a Mexican newspaper reported the discovery of a list of Mexican soldiers allegedly being paid by a drug lord and the Mexican Defense Department acknowledged that four officers and an enlisted man were under investigation for alleged links to a drug cartel. A senior Mexican immigration official was arrested at the border and accused of drug smuggling.
In a manner reminiscent of those progress reports made during the Vietnam War, authorities speak of steady progress. The Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel has been weakened by a series of prominent arrests including the notorious Arellano Felix brothers. Francisco Javier Arellano Felix is serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison after being captured in a fishing boat of the Baja coast. Extradition of other gang leaders to face charges in the United States has been blocked in some cases because of the death penalty in the U.S. Mexico does not have a death penalty and will not extradite its citizens to nations that do.
Capturing cartel leaders and record drug seizures at the border from time to time are cited as examples of progress. They are false indicators. There has been little overall apparent progress. In fact, things appear to be getting worse. In the war between the Mexican authorities and the drug cartels, the good guys are not winning and the people of Mexico know it. Captured or slain cartel leaders are quickly replaced. There are robust career opportunities and rich rewards in this dirty business.
President Felix Calderon has orchestrated a brave but probably futile war on organized crime. The drug cartels have fought back with great determination. The income from selling drugs to the Americans is just too great to resist. It is highly doubtful that any such war can be won, especially given the American demand and the corruption that is hampering efforts in Mexico.
So what is to be done? The so-called war on drugs is not going well in the United States and it is certainly not working for Mexico. Moreover, prospects of winning it, in spite of throwing gobs of money at the problem, are poor. Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state. No nation can tolerate this kind of challenge to its authority.
The United States has a major responsibility in this matter. Ours is the demand that fuels this war. We must find a way to stop the demand or else acknowledge that the war is lost and legalize drugs. The continuation of a failed war with such enormous casualties is just too costly an option. CRO
copyright 2008 J.F. Kelly, Jr.
J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California.
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