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“A leading presidential candidate of Mexico’s ruling party said he would break with government policy and withdraw the army from the fight against drug gangs if he wins the election in 2012,” reuters.com reports. “Santiago Creel, a former interior minister belonging to the conservative National Action Party (PAN), told Reuters that President Felipe Calderon’s military strategy had served its course and that he would change ‘everything’ as leader . . .
“The direct, frontal, expansive strategy is a strategy that should end with this administration,” said Creel, who is seeking the PAN’s nomination for the presidency.
The Mexican and American governments are siding with the Sinaloan cartel and their allies in their bloody battle against Los Zetas. But at least they’re fighting someone.
If President Calderon’s replacement calls a “truce” in the drug war, if America can do nothing to at least ameliorate the criminal conspiracies terrorizing average Mexicans, Mexico’s citizenry will be completely at the drug lords’ mercy.
You could argue that this is already true, what with Mexico’s defilement and destruction of their citizens’ right to keep and bear arms and the cartels’ heinous reign south of the border.
I repeat: gun control has rendered Mexico’s populace irrelevant to the future of their own country. Check this via borderlandbeat.com:
An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate’s associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates’ businesses.
The vow is a bizarre cyber twist to Mexico’s ongoing drug war, as a group that has no guns is squaring off against the Zetas, a cartel blamed for thousands of deaths as well as introducing beheadings and other frightening brutality.
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“You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him,” says a masked man in a video posted online on behalf of the group, Anonymous.
“We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession,” says the man, who is wearing a suit and tie.
The blog is mightier than a vast criminal enterprise armed to the teeth operating with complete impunity? Good luck with that. In fact, this “battle” between bloggers and Los Zetas would be funny if the bloggers stood even a chance of surviving the inevitable cartel reprisals.
Meanwhile, as corrupt as they undoubtably are, the Mexican military remain a potent countervailing force against complete lawlessness. Take that away and even the slightest hope of democracy will die.
A contiguous nation completely controlled by narco-terrorists. If you think illegal immigration across our porous border is bad now . . . The mind boggles.
This is a scary prospect. I am against it but can see that legalizing drugs would immediately destroy the drug cartels. No cash, no cartels. I am hoping one of you good folks here have a clearer picture of this situation.
Legalizing drugs wouldn’t necessarily stop cartels, drugs are not the only business their in. Although it is probably their main source of revenue, despite it cutting down on some of their cash it wont stop them.
You’re right of course, this is beyond drugs and now has to do with power. The cartels can see an opportunity to take over a country and they will probably do anything to accomplish that.
However, I do believe that cutting off the drug money would be a far more serious a blow to them than you believe. Don’t forget the rest of central/south America and the impact the loss of drug money would cause. Columbia for example. However, if the entire economies are disrupted there is no telling where that will lead. Might cause more problems than it solves.
Myth. While legalizing drugs will reduce the price so will it reduce their expenses. No more expensive smuggling operations, no bribes or support money to pay. Legalized drugs would be more profitable then they are now.
Massively reduced risk premiums, as I like to put it.
Hey, they could just tax the drug profits and divert some of that money to an “unemployed drug worker fund” for a win-win.
Right now the cartels have no organized competition in drug sales. Were drugs legalized they would have to take a significant profit reduction due not only to price drops, but also to compete with corporations such as Phillip Morris who have significant experience mass manufacturing and selling a similar product.
The cartels have one advantage that Phillip Morris does not. “That’s a nice 7-11 you got there buddy.” The cartels will still use muscle to make sure the retailers purchase from the right suppliers. That’s how the mafia operated after the end of prohibition.
It’s funny that here in America they want to pretend that this war in Mexico is only going on in Mexico, yet every day Americans kill each other over this. Look at are city streets bathed in blood and white powder.
I’m grateful to Al Jazera and blogs such as TTAG for bringing me focused news that the American Mass Media does not choose to report. A great concern of mine is that an amnesty and voting rights for illegal aliens will bring in new congressmen that vote for open borders and a more connected NAU. With that I see a tidal wave of new residents, demanding a huge amount of costly social service program and the violence in America going way beyond what we have today.
Perhaps for their news, but opinion-wise, they are not on our side at all:
http://aljazeera.com/Services/Search/?q=NRA
Good links. I’m not surprised about AJ bias about the rights of citizens to own guns. I was sarcastically referring to the overall lousy so-called news that we get here in the USA.
I have seen some great coverage about what is actually going on here with Wall Street and the FED by RT (Russian News). Other sites that I’ve seen/read great coverage of North American events have been from countries such as Switzerland and Singapore. The only reason that my investments didn’t get wiped out in 2008 was because I sold them in November 2007 thanks to watching/reading Libertarian/Austrian economic and financial micro-media/blogs and foreign investment sites.
If the army withdraws that will do NOTHING to curb the direct occupation of narcotics forces and the bloodshed of civilians will increase without badges as some form of protection. How easy is it for a bunch of people with assault rifles to rig an election with no resistance? Take a look at Iraq for an idea.
I think that announcement just put the proverbial neck of the entire country of Mexico in a noose and I think that citizens in Texas border towns will be learning a lot more Spanish and very soon…
It boggles the mind that progressive and some conservative American politicians call for banning more categories of guns and even outright total bans to reduce gun violence. Some politicians are dumb enough to believe it and others just want lowly citizens not to own guns making government that much more powerful and needed. Mexican citizens can only legally own .22 calibers. The evidence for what excess gun control does and does not do is overwhelming.
Mexican citizens can only own .22s with the government’s permission, purchased through the Mexican military. There are NO civilian gun stores in Mexico. Mexicans are also limited to small amounts of ammo. Also sold through the military.
I often wonder why “warring” cartels, gangs, etc. don’t just make peace and merge with each other to be even more powerful (imagine a “super-cartel” made up of Los Zetas and the Sinaloas – yikes).
I guess it’s good that they don’t – at least they (sometimes, anyway) stay occupied by fighting each other instead of the government and/or citizens…
FWIW, I just saw the “BUSTY Latino Girls” ad at the bottom of this post (previously mentioned by someone on another post). As a computer geek, it’s most likely due to the textual content in this article… Ad engines work off of keywords, etc.
I’m not complainin’ or anything…
I missed the busty Latino girls add. all I got was a Sears add.
Anyway, the article really does not surprise me that the Mexican politicians are going to stop resisting the drug cartels. I have thought the drug cartels were the de facto power in Mexico anyway. The Mex border is going to get worse.
I think Aharon is right about the scenario of the illegals becoming legal and having our politicians and bureaucrats curry favor to them and initiating even more destructive policies for the USA.
I still think legalizing drugs and shifting production to Kentucky would pull some of the Drug Gangs fangs.
I would also state that the gun control schemes of Mexico and the USA usually play into the hands of the Drug Gangs in that the average citizens are going to be much more easily cowed by them and the Government Goons.
This thing is winnable. Alvaro Uribe did it in Colombia. But aside from the use of force, the simplest way to defund the cartels would be not buying their poison. (I said “simple,” not “easy.”) And the cost of drug abuse in blood makes one think twice about its being a victimless crime.
What, you don’t think the hackers have a chance? The pen is mightier than the sword– it would seem to follow that the blog is mightier than the gun.
Some people think the next clash of superpowers will be between China… and Google.
My money’s on Google.
I wouldnt’ discount Anonymous entirely. They’ve proven themselves pretty good at outwitting the folks in much more advanced countries that are trying to track them down, and the cyber warfare they can inflict amounts to far more than just crashing someone’s Blackberry. That said, the cartels have also proven themselves resilient, and aren’t nearly as dependent on technology as other Anonymous targets.