Mexican official says army will fight drug war until 2013

Thanks to: Reuters

"Monte Alejandro Rubido, who recently joined President Felipe Calderon's National Security Council as a technical director, said troops would stay at the core of the war on drug cartels who have slaughtered nearly 2,000 people so far this year, mainly rival smugglers and police." (italics mine)

Facing a corrupt Mexican police force that, understandably, has in many cases chosen to supplement their income providing protection for the cartels', the Mexican government has resorted to using their army to fight the cartels' and retrain and modernise the police. Now Mexican officials are on record saying the Mexican army will be involved until at least 2013. The first question that comes to mind is how does Mexico plan to pay for this war? With a global recession that is showing no signs of ending, Mexico's defence budget will almost certainly have to be cut between now and 2013.  The cartels' on the other hand have no shortage of cash flow and could in theory continue battling the Mexican army indefinitely wile simultaneously continuing their drug smuggling operation. 

As I highlighted in the above quote the cartels' violence is mainly directed at those who stand in the way of profits. Most of the violence began as infighting between cartels' competing for the best smugging routes and landing strips.  As the government of Mexico has tried to quell the fighting they have also become targets. 

"Several high-profile arrests, including that of a presidential guardsmen who allegedly received $100,000 a month to track Calderon for drug traffickers, have also revealed drug cartel infiltration inside the military." (italics mine)

I love this part for so many reasons. Mainly the fact that it is the very last sentence of the article. Anyways, Hey guess what? The army is on it's way to becoming just as corrupt as the police force! I don't think that might be a bit of a problem in waging a 4 year against the same drug gangs that are "infiltrating" the army, do you? 

Well, do you?

Signs point to Mexican government in cartels' pocket

Via: LA Times

"Reporting from Mexico City -- In the tense state of Durango, Roman Catholic Archbishop Hector Gonzalez announced over the weekend that the fugitive drug trafficker who tops Mexico's most wanted list was living nearby.

And everyone knows it, he added. Except, it would seem, the authorities, who fail to make an arrest.

A shocking revelation indeed. But in Durango, most local newspapers and television stations declined to report the comments, and for some reason national papers that contained the remarks did not appear on many newsstands."

When stories like this come out it's pretty apparent we already lost this war before the US even gets actively involved in fighting it. If the Mexican cartels' can simply buy off Mexican political leaders and police forces then they have already won any increased armed conflict that the policies of the United States regarding the Mexican drug war may incite.

 

Mexico's government sends 10,000 more soldiers to border city

Mexico seeks tighter lockdown in drug war city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, April 16 (Reuters) - Mexico's government is hiring more police and sending federal agents to the bloody border city of Ciudad Juarez, where it already has thousands of troops trying to quell drug violence.

President Felipe Calderon, who has made crushing drug gangs a central goal of his government, sent 10,000 soldiers and federal police into Ciudad Juarez in March.

His government says drug murders in the city have since dropped by 80 percent. But police corruption and complaints of rights abuses threaten to undermine early gains and the federal attorney general's office is sending more agents, recruiting more police and appointing a general as an aide to the city's mayor, the army said on Thursday.

"People are asking what will happen if the army leaves Ciudad Juarez. Well, the army's presence here is permanent, but we are also strengthening all areas of security," army spokesman Enrique Torres said.

So let me get this straight, Mexico has to bring in their army to police the streets permanently in Ciudad Juarez to reduce drug war violence in the city and President Obama is praising Mexico?

What  kind of solution is that? Based on this I guess Mexico and the United States are willing to become police states  before they would allow the legal market to regulate the sale and production of Marijuana. This will result in an unacceptable loss of freedoms and privacy for all citizens just to keep some people from using a plant that they prove

time and again they are going to use

anyways. 

We couldn't ask for a better illustration as to why working to end the war on drugs 

sooner, rather then later will make the transition easier for every sector of society to 

accommodate. The longer the drug war rages in either country the farther we could 

descend into a paramilitary police state designed to protect us from the same violence 

that was created by bad drug policy in the first place. I don't think the US or Mexico can 

afford to continue this path for long, it remains to be seen how long the Mexican cartels' 

can hold out.

Obama's off to Mexico

President Barack Obama is on Air force One heading to Mexico today to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.  This will be President Obama's only stop before heading off to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas tomorrow. Topics of expected discussion between the two leaders will center, unsurprisingly, on the drug related violence and immigration issues. 

Many Mexican leaders are calling for the US to reinstate the assault weapons ban, lifted under former President Bush in 2004. But even the mention of reinstating the ban earlier this year was met with opposition by both Democrats and Republicans. Since then Obama's administration has made the decision not go any further with the the reinstatement of the ban. 

What Obama has done is ask congress for $350 million for US - Mexico border security, and send hundreds of Federal agents and drug sniffing dogs to help fight the Mexican drug cartels. The leaders will meet today to show the United state's solidarity with Mexico as it confronts the cartels and will try to come up with more effective means of battling them.

Let's hope they come to the conclusion that they can't fight these guys with guns. We could bankrupt the cartels by dissolving their marijuana market, but I'm not sure enough people would die if we do it that way...