• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
While U.S. leaders have focused on actual orillusorysecuritythreatsindistantregions,thereisatroublingsecurityproblembrewingmuchclosertohome.ViolenceinMexico,mostlyrelatedtothetrade in illegal drugs, has risen sharply in recentyears and shows signs of becoming even worse.That violence involves turf fights among the vari-ousdrug-traffickingorganizationsastheyseektocontrol access to the lucrative U.S. market. To anincreasingextent,theviolencealsoentailsfightingbetween drug traffickers and Mexican military andpoliceforces.Thecarnagehasalreadyreachedthepointthatthe U.S. State Department has issued travel alertsforAmericanstravelinginMexico.U.S.tourismtocities on Mexico’s border with the United States,where the bloodshed has been the worst, hasdropped sharply. Even more troubling, the vio-lence is spilling across the border into communi-tiesinthesouthwesternUnitedStates.U.S.officials,alarmedatthegrowingpowerof the Mexican drug cartels, have pressured the gov-ernmentofFelipeCalderóntowageamorevigor-ousanti-drugcampaign.Calderónhasrespondedbygivingthearmytheleadroleineffortstoelim-inatethedrugtraffickersinsteadofrelyingonfed-eralandlocalpoliceforces,whichhavebeenthor-oughlycorruptedbydrugmoney.Washingtonhasrewarded Calderón’s government by implement-ing the initial stage of the so-called Mérida Initiative.InJune2008,Congressapproveda$400million installment modeled on Plan Colombia,the anti-drug assistance measure for Colombia and other drug-source countries in the Andeanregion. That program, now in its ninth year, hasalreadycostmorethan$5billion,withoutsignifi-cantly reducing the flow of drugs coming out of South America. The Mérida Initiative will likely costbillionsandbeequallyineffectual. Abandoning the prohibitionist model of deal-ingwiththedrugproblemistheonlyeffectiveway to stem the violence in Mexico and its spilloverintotheUnitedStates.Otherproposedsolutions,including preventing the flow of guns from theU.S. to Mexico, establishing tighter control overthe border, and (somehow) winning the war ondrugsarefutile.Aslongastheprohibitioniststrat-egyisinplace,thehugeblackmarketpremiuminillegal drugs will continue, and the lure of thatprofit,togetherwiththeillegality,guaranteesthatthe most ruthless, violence-prone elements willdominate the trade. Ending drug prohibitionwould de-fund the criminal trafficking organiza-tionsandreducetheirpower.
Troubled Neighbor
 Mexico’sDrugViolencePosesaThreattotheUnitedStates
byTedGalenCarpenter
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, is the author of eight books, including 
Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington’s Futile War on Drugs in Latin America 
(Palgrave/Macmillan).
Executive Summary 
No. 631 February 2, 2009
 
Introduction:TheRisingTideofViolence
There has been an alarming spike in vio-lenceinMexicoinrecentyears,mostofwhichis associated with the trafficking in illegaldrugs and the efforts of the Mexican govern-ment to shut down that trade. The extent of  violencewasalreadyatatroublinglevelasear-ly as 2002 and 2003.
1
Since then, though, thesituation has dramatically worsened, and thecarnage is increasingly impacting communi-ties in the southwestern United States. It hasreached the point that it poses a legitimatenationalsecurityissueforU.S.policymakers. Although there are nearly a dozen drug-traffickingorganizationsinMexico,includingseven significant cartels, two groups are espe-cially powerful. One is the Federation (some-times called the Pacific cartel), an associationthatemergedfroma2006accordbetweentheSinaloa cartel and several secondary traffick-ing syndicates in and around Mexico’s Pacificstate of Sinaloa. The Federation’s principalrival is the Gulf cartel, based in the city of Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamauli-pas, along the eastern portion of the borderwith Texas. It has another major base fartherwestinthecityofNuevoLaredo.
2
Bothgroupsareextremelyviolent,withtheGulfcartelhav-inganespeciallypotentcadreofenforcers—theZetas—who are highly trained anti-drug mili-tary personnel who defected to the traffick-ers.
3
 A third faction, the Tijuana cartel (onceperhaps the most powerful organization), hasdeclined somewhat in recent years as severaltop leaders have been arrested or killed.
4
Indeed, over the past six or seven years, theTijuana cartel has been the frequent target of high-profilepoliceandmilitaryoperations.Thesegroups,especiallytheGulfcartelandthe Federation, battle law enforcement agen-cies and one another for control of the accesscorridors to the lucrative U.S. drug market.
5
 An incident in Nuevo Laredo in April 2008illustrates how brazen the drug traffickershave become. The Gulf cartel’s Zetas openly sought recruits to their ranks, posting help-wanted signs and hanging a giant banneracross a major thoroughfare. The banner’smessage was: “The Zetas want you, soldier orex-soldier. We offer a good salary, food andbenefitsforyourfamily.Don’tsufferanymoremistreatmentanddon’tgohungry.”
6
Even supposed victories in the drug warprovetobemixedblessingsatbest.AsStratfor,a risk-assessment consulting organization,notes: “Inter-cartel violence tends to swingupwardafterU.S.orMexicanauthoritiesman-agetoweakenordisruptagivenorganization. Atanypoint,ifrivalgroupssenseanorganiza-tion might not be able to defend its turf, they willswoopintobattlenotonlytheincumbentgroup,butalsoeachotherforcontrol.”
7
Theturfbattleshavebeenferocious.In2005,morethan1,300peopleperishedindrug-relat-edviolence.By2007,theyearlytotalhadsoaredto2,673.Anditcontinuestogetworse.Byearly  August 2008, the body count for that yearalready exceeded the number of fatalities in allof 2007.
8
By mid-November, some estimatesputthetollatmorethan4,500.
9
There have been especially nasty episodesthis year. In early May, more than a hundredpeoplewerekilledinasingleweek.OnMexico’snational day in September, drug gang hitmentossed two grenades into a packed crowd cele-bratingtheholidayinthecityofMorelia,killingeightpeopleandwoundingdozens.Andovera seven-dayperiodinlateOctober,50peoplediedin shootouts or executions in one city alone—Tijuana.
10
 Although most victims seem to be partici-pantsinthedrugtrade,severalhundredpoliceofficersandsoldiershavealsodiedinthefight-ing.Manypolicepersonnelfeelundersiege.InMay2008,threeMexicanpolicechiefsrequest-ed political asylum in the United Statesbecauseofdrugcartelthreatstothemandtheirfamilies.
11
Thereisagrowingnumberofothercasualtiesaswell,including24journalistswhohave been killed execution-style since 2000.
12
Many reporters now flatly refuse to cover sto-ries involving the cartels.
13
 And there are theinnocent bystanders who are caught in thecrossfire when fights erupt between the druggangs or between gang members and the
2
Evensupposed victoriesinthedrugwarprovetobemixedblessingsatbest.
 
authorities.
Newsweek
correspondent MichaelMillernotesthatinnocentvictimsjustthisyearincludealittlegirlinCiudadJuarez,sixpeopleinfrontofarecreationcenterinthesamecity,a 14-year-old girl in Acapulco, two small chil-dren in Tijuana, and other people who weresimplyinthewrongplaceatthewrongtime.
14
Theviolencesometimestakesonespecially gruesome characteristics. Victims typically bear signs of extensive torture, and one of thefavorite tactics the cartels use when they wishto make an emphatic point is to behead their victimsanddisplaythoseheadsinahighlyvis-ibleplace.
15
Twoyearsago,theheadsofamur-dered police strike force commander and oneofhisagentswereleftjammedontoafenceinfront of the police station in the prominentPacific seaside resort of Acapulco.
16
 A shorttime later, five severed heads were tossedacross the dance floor in a nightclub in thestateofMichoacan.Othershavebeenleftnearschools, courthouses, and other governmentfacilities.
17
Pamela Starr, an international relationsscholar at the University of Southern Califor-nia, concludes that the death toll in Mexico isnowsimilar“toacountryinthethroesofaciv-il war.”
18
The U.S. State Department warned American travelers in April 2008 that battlesbetween drug-trafficking gangs (and betweenthose gangs and Mexican military and police)inportionsofnorthernMexicoweresoseverethat they constituted “the equivalent of mili-tarysmall-unitcombatandhaveincludeduseof machine guns and fragmentation gre-nades.”
19
Thatwarningremainsineffect.Theadverseimpactofthefightinghasbeenmost pronounced in Mexican cities along theborderwiththeUnitedStates.InTijuana,mer-chantsestimatethattourismisdownasmuchas 90 percent from 2005, when an estimated 4millionpeoplevisitedthecity.Halfofthedown-townbusinesses—some2,400enterprises—haveclosed their doors in the past three years.
Washington Post 
correspondent Manuel Roig-Franzianotesthatmattersarenotmuchbetterintheotherbordercities.Emptymarkets“havebecome the norm in Ciudad Juarez” (directly across the border from El Paso), and in NuevoLaredo five major hotels have shut down.
20
Mexico’s main tourist locales, such as CancunandAcapulco,havefaredsignificantlybettersofar, but officials and business leaders are ner- vousasreportsproliferateaboutthebloodshedafflictingotherareas.
ImpactonAmericans
The turmoil in Mexico is no longer a con-cern merely to that country. Increasingly, the violence is affecting Americans who travel ordo business in Mexico, and there are even a troubling number of incidents in whichMexico-relatedviolencehasspilledacrosstheborder into the United States itself. A State Department report released in August2008notedthat131U.S.citizenswere victimsofhomicidesor“executions”inMexicobetweenJuly1,2005,andJune30,2008.
21
Mostof those victims perished in cities along theU.S.–Mexico border where drug-related fight-ing has been the most intense. Some of thoseindividuals were undoubtedly involved in thedrug trade, but others were not. Indeed, evencoming from a prominent family does notseem to guarantee immunity: in June 2008, a female relative of Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX)was kidnapped in Ciudad Juarez, one of theareas in which the drug gangs have been themostactive.
22
There are indications that cartel hitmenhave struck at individuals inside the UnitedStates.Inthepasttwoyears,sevenpeoplewerekilled execution-style in Laredo, Texas, acrosstheRioGrandefromoneofMexico’smostvio-lentcities,NuevoLaredo.Thevictimsincludeda man whom the hitmen stalked and killednearhisplaceofwork,andanothermanwhomtheygunneddownintheparkinglotofapop-ular restaurant. Authorities arrested and con- victedtwoGulfcartelenforcersforthestringof executions.
23
In October 2008, enforcers kid-napped a Las Vegas child because a relativeallegedlyowed moneytoone of Mexican druggangs.
24
Thecartelshavenowbecomeboldenoughto put Americans living in the United States
3
ThereareindicationsthatcartelhitmenhavestruckatindividualsinsidetheUnitedStates.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...