Well, what do you do when the drug cartels can power project more than the military for even a short period of time?
Is it time to just call it quits?
Yeah, ultimately, the government and the people down there are in this situation because they either lack the resolve, don’t really want to eliminate cartel control or some combination. The government routinely gets strong armed, the whole fiasco where El Chapo was freed repeatedly before they crawled to the US and asked us to take over on him was embarrassing.
““The only thing worse than trying to capture a drug lord without a plan and setting off urban warfare is trying to capture a drug lord without a plan, setting off urban warfare, and letting him go,” said Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico’s intelligence agency.”
Unless there is some form of complete cultural shift I can’t envision, it’s hard to see Mexico out from under cartel control in my lifetime.
This was a good read. In short, the cartels have captured the government in many cases. Much like pharma companies in the US, except more murderous.
US can’t really intervene effectively. Reality is people lack the resolve or the will to do this in Mexico, the population doesn’t entirely believe the cartels are bad, at least not bad enough to purge. They’re so commingle with the government, population and police, the US would literally have to occupy the country, which is not plausible or desirable.
Alas, I don’t yet possess the military might to face the cartels. Hopefully someone of means hears your call.
#BuildTheWall
What about legalizing all drugs? Mexico’s situation is an extreme version of prohibition-era violence and corruption. I think it’s worth a try as things can’t get much worse than they are now.
They need someone like that Philippine leader who is just killing criminals left and right. Maybe put out a bounty.
It’s really not going to fix anything. As the marijuana revenue dried up in some areas, the cartels went to smuggling people across borders and now in places like Acapulco they went back to just extorting businesses for protection, etc. It’s an excuse.
The reality is if you travel down there much, do home stays etc, it’s just engrained into the culture. They’ve always sort of worshiped the desparato figure, it’s integrated into their day of the dead and there’s an acceptance of crime and anti-authority bent that honestly it is the way it is because ultimately they’re ok with it. People always want to write a think piece on some American point of view where the Mexicans must all be victims, but 50 years in, the reality is they may not want it, but they don’t unwant it either.
Blaming drugs, American guns, etc is just an excuse, the drugs, guns and money all cross the border, but the cartel control doesn’t and there’s a reason for that.
Hey, that’s my best friend you just insulted.
why would you stop a profitable exporter in your country. the mexican government only needs to look like they want to stop it to keep the us off its backs. but if i was the mexican government, i would let the exporters continue exporting their cancer tax free. whether it be illegal narcotics or immigration.
the us does it with cigarettes so i dont understand what the big hubbub is.
^ It’s literally destroying their economy and society. Mass beheadings, etc. Pretty sure the cost to the government is not insignificant.
Legalization is a legit strategy to try. Even if the criminals will be criminals theory is right, there isn’t enough money in kidnapping, people smuggling, etc to create the havoc that drug trafficking does. These less lucrative crimes won’t attract as many criminals, and won’t so easily corrupt police and government. It’s worth a shot.
BS, definitely has a point. The cartels control the plazas, the product doesn’t really matter. Malee has a point too in that human trafficking is more fraught and not as profitable as drugs.
Bottom line is something would replace the lost drug revenue as the cartels struggle to survive. It could be people, conventional weapons, WMD or just outright terrorism and extortion. The problem is you really can’t legalize everything. That said, I’m in favor of many drugs, maybe all, being legal.
I’m actually pro-legalization on its own merits, even up past weed and I agree it will be less revenue for cartels, I’m just saying it won’t significantly alter the situation in Mexico.
i’d say 99% of mexicans want to live in peace and quiet and not worry about their boys getting beheaded or shot by the cartels. Take out the lucrative drug trade and youll fix a lot of the desperado problems
us spends roughly 150b on drugs annually. but we spend even 600b on fixing hte negative exernalities they cause. so legalizing drugs is a real bad idea. the us government should ban all drugs and minimize its effects as taxing it will not cover the cost. i think the best way to solve the drug problem is to place heave penalties on drug users to encourage them to stop. and the us should spend resources to monitor it more. the dea budget is roughly only $3b. in fact they should spend money to destroy cartels that send their filth to our country.
mexico’s share of the drug trade is roughly 30b. mexico government has an incentive to pretend they are stopping hte drug trade, but quite honestly, this is a moneymaker for them that has minimal negative effects. maybe 15k people die. so maybe 2m dollar drug rev per death. the average mexican makes 10k per year. so lets double it to adjust for inflation 20k for 50 years at a 3 percent rate. the present value of that is 500k. and tahts with an ongoing war for the past decade. imagine if they controlled it, and made it peacevul, minimized the number of deaths, improve the smuggle routes, and export more. there is no reason why they are not taking a larger market share of the drugs used by us. so to sum this is not a mexican problem. this is an american problem.
Of course you’d say that, you have no context or background. This is hardly accurate if you spend time down there and dramatically oversimplifies the problem. Same reason dumb Americans always rush to try to “install democracy” overseas. Of 99% of the simple villagers all want democracy by our made up polls. Except when it’s down to it they all really want their dictator.
Bad math Nerdy, SAD!
The externalities would shift if you legalize, it’s not a static number. Take gang behavior and enforcement costs for instance, both of which would be reduced. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!