Solution to the Mexican Drug War

[Rick Oltman]

Now that the Mexican Drug War has been validated by the MSM (main stream media), in this case 60 Minutes, can we assume that it is now serious enough to try to do something about? There is some truth to the statement that America’s appetite for drugs is partially responsible for the drug trade. But it isn’t responsible for the current level of violence. America’s drug use peaked 30 years ago and has been declining ever since. The real question is; is the savagery south of the border a big enough threat to corporate interests that the U.S. government will take steps to deal with the problem?

The 60 Minutes piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/26/60minutes/main4831806_page2.shtml

Last November a U.S. military assessment said that Mexico could be near collapse:
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2008/JOE2008.pdf

“….the growing assault by the drug cartels and their thugs on the Mexican government over the past several years reminds one that an unstable Mexico could represent a homeland security problem of immense proportions to the United States.”

Further:

“The Mexican…government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”


The situation is terrible for Mexican citizens who are just trying to stay out of the crossfire between the cartels and government forces, neither of which has ever showed any concern for the average citizen.

It is also our problem for obvious reasons.

But, like I said, America’s drug use peaked 30 years ago.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse report; Monitoring the Future shows the trend of drug abuse from 1975 – 2006. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol2_2006.pdf

The “Illicit Drug Use Index” (figure 2-1) includes marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Following a peak in the late 1970s the usage trend declined until 1992 when it climbed during the 90s (never reaching the previous highs of the 70s) and then beginning another gradual decline in 2000. The trend lines for four groups, 12th graders, 10th graders, 8th graders, college students and adults all follow the same general pattern of decline.

What all that means is that America’s appetite for illegal drugs; cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine (the three main drugs supplied by Mexican drug gangs) is less today than it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago and 30 years ago. Then why all the drug violence now? It’s a combination of factors.

First on the list would be corruption in Mexico generally. Mexico, like most third world counties, has always had a well known level of official corruption. Once corruption becomes institutionalized and acceptable, it then just grows as creative entrepreneurs find more ways to utilize that corrupt official, corrupt office, corrupt department, corrupt government. The drug business is no different. Approaching Mexican officials and offering them “Plata O Plomo,” (silver or lead) to look the other way on smuggling is a no-brainer south of the border.

Number two would be the rise in the number of cartels. You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas. The official corruption that allowed the drug trafficking to flourish in Mexico for years made the cartels rich and powerful. And since it was easy money given America’s large and young population and a virtual open border, more and more people got into the trade. As they became richer and more powerful it was only a matter of time until they challenged the rulers in Mexico City...and each other.

Third would be the decline in available smuggling routes north. Public pressure to secure the border has been building in our country for years with immigration activists across the country sounding the sovereignty siren. You can add to that talk radio and cable news shows. As the federal government, at its foot dragging best, put up more fencing and vehicle barriers along the border, the drug traffic was driven farther out into the desert, farther from roads in our country, making the smugglers more vulnerable to detection. Those routes that do allow successful access are naturally going to be used by anyone knowing about them, and that makes them worth fighting over. An increase number of cartels coupled with declining smuggling routes made the internecine warfare inevitable.

Laredo/Nuevo Laredo’s drug war is the perfect example. Why is that area worth years of blood shed? Look at the map. Laredo, the largest land port for goods entering America sits at the southern most end of Interstate 35, which goes north through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Ft Worth, Oklahoma City, Witchita, Topeka, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth. It bisects America almost to the Canadian border. Remember the NAFTA Superhighway that was supposed to service the mythical North American Union? Well, this was the route. And from I-35 you can go east or west on Interstates 10, 20, 40, 70, 80, 90 or 94. These roads are the drug trafficker’s Interstate Drug Delivery System.

The number of tractor-trailer trucks rolling over the World Trade Bridge daily into the transfer stations north of Laredo boggles the mind. It is like a river of trucks stretching south as far as the binoculars can see. And in addition to the pedestrian bridge and the World Trade Bridge, there is also a railroad bridge that crosses over the Rio Grande into our country. Controlling that access point into America is worth $billions to cartels with contraband.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_International_Bridge

The level and type of violence is shocking if not surprising. It is best described as “narco-terrorism.” One-upping the “Colombian Necktie” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_necktie the current practice of beheading police and government officials is a public relations campaign invented for the modern information age. Nothing quite says “Plata O Plomo,” like a sack of human heads, or a lot of headless corpses lying around.

The 60 minutes report says, “Mexico's police are overwhelmed in part because drug traffickers have them outgunned. Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora is helping lead the effort to break up the cartels.

"Half of what we seize, 55 percent are assault rifles. And this is what gives these groups this intimidation power. Over 17,000 assault rifles, throughout the last two years. Two thousand and 200 grenades, missile and rocket launchers. Fifty caliber sniper rifles," the attorney general explained.

(Voice over) It might surprise you to learn where all these guns are coming from. It turns out 90 percent of them are purchased in the US.

"The Second Amendment was never designed to arm criminal groups, and especially not foreign criminal groups as it is today," Medina-Mora said.”

Mexican government is outgunned? Come on. Like every totalitarian regime, they have access to the best weapons that money can buy. The idea that Mexican police and army could be outgunned by cartels acquiring guns through “straw purchases” in America doesn’t pass the laugh test. And I can do without a Mexican government official lecturing me on what my country’s constitution says about owning firearms.

Look at the transcript and you can’t square it with reality. “17,000 assault rifles.” (There is a very broad definition of “assault rifle” which is actually a term that was invented to incite prejudice against rifles.) Did Medina mean 17,000 fully automatic machine guns? Because that was the implication in the “outgunned” comment. If they have recovered 17,000 fully automatic rifles, they were not, I repeat not, purchased in America. 2,200 hand grenades? Nope. Missile and rocket launchers? I don’t think so. None of these items, or the items that were displayed in the 60 Minutes piece, could be purchased at a gun store or gun show in America. I saw an old WWII-Vietnam era Mk2 Pineapple grenade. In another picture of Mexican government seizures I saw several modern M67 fragmentation grenades. None of which were purchased at an American gun store or gun show.

I saw a belt fed SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) an M-60 machine gun and several M-16s with attached 40mm 203 grenade launchers with optics and options that look suspiciously to me like they came, not from an American gun store but, from a Mexican Army arsenal. Where do you think the gold tipped M406, 40mm High-explosive grenades came from? Plata O Ploma.

It is widely known that Mexican Army units are also involved in the drug trade. In some cases they equip drug crews with uniforms, weapons and vehicles. These “madrinas” can then operate near the boarder without interference as they smuggle drug loads into the U.S. It is probable that many of the military weapons the Mexican government has recovered come from these groups.

The .50 caliber Barrett rifle that was mentioned was probably purchased in America and smuggled south into Mexico. And to that I say check all the serial numbers, trace them back and prosecute the straw purchasers to the fullest extent of the law. Some news reports say the Mexicans won’t provide the serial numbers, some say they do, let’s get to the bottom of this and prosecute the guilty, ok?

But, that brings up another question. How are these guns getting into Mexico, the Port of Entry? How is it that a sailor from San Diego on his way into Tijuana can get nailed by Mexican border cops for having one bullet rolling around in the tool box on his pickup truck, yet .50 caliber rifles, and supposedly thousands of other guns are making it in? Did you say “Plata O Ploma?” No doubt somebody did.

The Mexican government says they want our help, but who are they kidding? It was official corruption in 1985 that led to the kidnapping and gruesome (tape recorded) torture and murder of an American law enforcement officer. The example made of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar, an ex-Marine and DEA officer who was fingered by Mexican government officials likely hasn’t been forgotten by American law enforcement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Camarena

Hell, just a couple years ago a female U.S. Border Patrol agent who was chasing an illegal alien and accidentally crossed into Mexico had to be rescued by fellow agents who drew their guns on the Mexican border guards who weren’t going to let her go. In what was a real life Mexican Standoff, the American officers told their “counterparts” that they were taking their sister agent back with them. They did.

What American law enforcement officer, however brave and dedicated, is going to go into that mess?

What can we really do to help? We can do a lot on our side of the border.

Keep up the pressure on drug gangs operating in America. Keep them off balance with raids and arrests. Tie up their money so they can’t purchase the drugs destined for delivery. Since Mexican drug gangs are preeminent in American cities now, use local law enforcement in the “barrios” that were previously off limits to them. Even the illegal aliens living there don’t want to be around drug dealers.

Look into the $billions of dollars that moves south into Mexico every year. 60 Minutes said it's $35 billion in drug profits. How much of that is included in the $23 billion in remesas (remittances) that were sent to Mexico last year nobody knows. But these are amounts so large that they can be detected, followed, traced, interrupted. Banks, wire services and every other way that money is transmitted should be opened to government scrutiny and, maybe even, taxed. That could fund a few more drug agents and helicopters, don’t you think?

Finally, and most importantly; Secure the border. Use the military to patrol every foot of the border with Mexico. Foot patrols, soldiers in trucks and Hummvees, helicopters with forward looking infra red and GPS will spot smugglers. Whether the contraband is drugs, or people, whatever it is, it can be interdicted at the border. Once the smuggling cartels realize that our border is secured, I mean really secured, some will give up. Some will try submarines, or airplanes, or catapults, or the tried and true tunnels. But once the land routes are closed, the fighting for position to dominate those routes will stop. Or, it will shift to some other scheme they will try to use. But, all of these efforts on our part will help to shut down or at least reduce the money flowing to the cartels. As their money declines, they will have to cut overhead, which means troops and equipment and that also means guns. If these diminished cartels find themselves fighting the Mexican government, the U.S. Government and each other, they will be in a situation they cannot win. Totalitarian rule will be returned to Mexico City, and we will have a secure border.

Why won’t any of that happen? Because the corporate masters in our country who help elect and re-elect open borders politicians need to feed their addiction; cheap labor. And if you can secure the border from drug traffickers, which we can, you can also shut off the human trafficking, which we can.

So, instead of taking real action that will produce real results, I expect a lot of lip service from our government and probably new laws and regulations that will restrict our rights and freedoms while not doing a thing to stem the tide of drugs or illegal aliens or the violence.

Be sure to tell me if I am wrong about this last part. I would be delighted to hear it.

Please visit the CAPS website at http://www.capsweb.org

3-2-09