Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So we've been through how the war on drugs in Mexico began, we've been through the cartels
and we've been through the victims, but has it been a success?
Let's being with some numbers. By the end of Felipe Calderon's presidency in November
2012 the Mexican Security Forces had seized 114 tonnes of ***, 11 thousand tonnes
of marijuana, 75 tonnes of crystal ***, one billion dollars, 100,000 cars, 515 ships and
578 planes from the Mexican cartels. Now that sounds like a lot but let's look at what's
happened on the US border with some stats on the start of the war on drugs in 2006 and
the most recent ones. The amount of heroine seized has double to 905 kilos, the amount
of weed has gone up from 1046 to 1500 tonnes but coke has fallen from 27 tonnes to 17.8
tonnes. So either the US has got more effective at sniffing out the drugs or there are more
going across the border in the first place. Either way though the huge amount of money
and resources that have been ploughed into it haven't done that much to stop the flow
of drugs over the border.
Between 2007 and 2011, 99,000 guns were seized by the Mexican security forces. Now that's
a lot but 68,000 of them were traced back to the US so that's more than 2/3 of the guns
that were captured that came from America in the first place and it doesn't even include
the ones that were caught on the US border before they even entered the country.
Now there are a few reasons why so many guns come across from the north but we're going
to look at the two main ones. One reason is simply straw man purchases. That's when somebody
buys the weapons on behalf of somebody else to get around background checks.
They'd know full way that they're going to be ending up in Mexico.
Then there's the controversial bit. Operation Fast and Furious. That was some genius idea
from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or ATF. Some bright
spark came up with a plan to allow illegal gun purchases from the Lone Wolf store in
Pheonix, Arizona hoping that they could trace them to Mexican cartels and most of the guns
did end up in Mexico but the ATF lost track of nearly all of them. So far the guns procured
in operation fast and furious have led to at least 211 homicides in Mexico including
a recent one where a police chief was killed in the town of Jalisco. And then in the states
a fast and furious weapon was found at the scene in Arizona where a US border patrol
officer was killed.
In 2006, 2119 out of a total of 11,806 intentional homicides were cartel-related, that's 18%.
In 2012 that number had risen to 12,394 out of 20,660 murders that were cartel-related,
that's 60% - enough said.
It's well-known that the Mexican security forces aren't exactly blameless in the failings
on the war on drugs but the scale of corruption might astound you.
The Mexican government reckon that the amount spent on bribing municipal police officers
every single month is around 100 million US dollars. President Calderon did introduce
a series of reforms but corruption is still endemic and the association of Mexican municipalities
have admitted that they need to create a police force for the 21st century because currently
it's just not good enough. But what about allegations of US corruption?
Last year, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla who had been the Sinaloa cartels logistics coordinator,
basically the guy who arranged drug shipments, made a pretty startling claim. He said the
US was actually secretly providing weapons to cartels as part of a divide and conquer
strategy.
According to him the US government and the Sinaloa cartel had an agreement that went
all the way back to before 2004 and didn't end until 2009. If his allegations are correct
it might explain why so many of the cartels guns are military grade and would go beyond
even operation fast and furious.
Then there was the suspicious plane crash which happened last year. It's alleged that
this jet which was carrying at least four tonnes of coke when it crashed was a CIA rendition
plane registered with a front company in the US. So there are allegations that the CIA
is profiting from the drugs trade in Mexico and if it does have links it does raise the
question, does the CIA really have any interest in the war on drugs being a success?
America's war on drugs was launched in 1971 by President Richard Nixon. In the first forty
years, one million dollars had been spent fighting them domestically and abroad. US
tax payers paid 51 billion dollars towards it in 2009 and according to the Drugs Policy
Alliance there are more people in prison on drugs charges, more people addicted, more
people abusing them, more people mis-using and overdosing then ever before in the United
States.
The figures show that illegal drugs are still flooding over the border and guns are flowing
the other way. In Mexico, drug-related deaths are up, violent incidents are up, corruption
is rife and the police need reforming. So you decide for yourself, has the war on drugs
in Mexico been a spectacular success or a great failure? Let us know what you think
in a comment and this is the last in the series on Mexico but it's probably something we'll
come back to again. So, until then...