I have already talked about the new MacBook Air and how it will affect iPad sales, I have also posted a review from one of my favorite documentaries, Keith Crossrow Truth in 24, so now it's time to jump into the foreign affairs realm and talk about an eye opening essay called "The Real War in Mexico: How Democracy Can Defeat The Drug Cartels" by Shannon O'Neil.
In “The Real War In Mexico”, an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, Shannon O’Neil describes the current situation in Mexico. O’Neil states, “Hysteria over bloodshed in Mexico clouds the real challenge. The rising violence is a product of democratization, and the only real solution is to continue strengthening Mexican democracy”. Her main point is that the war that the Mexican government is currently fighting is a result of the paradigm shift in the relations between drug cartels and government officials. Despite the crackdown, violence has made difficult to govern democratically. She supports it by showing how the drug war risks the growth of the Mexican democracy, its vibrant middle class, and U.S.-Mexico relations.
The political future of Mexico is one of the topics O’Neil explains: “The question is not whether the Mexican state will fail. It will not. The actual risk of the violence today is that it will undermine democracy tomorrow.” Paradoxical as it sounds, this current violence comes as a result of “Ties between Mexico’s long-ruling political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the drug traffickers solidified by the end of World War II.” For years these two co-existed smoothly but during the last twenty years, the situation has changed. Drug traffickers are no longer invincible under the protection of Mexican government officials, and the cooperation with the U.S. government has helped by providing intelligence data, weaponry and expertise, making it much harder for the drug cartels to evade justice.
The role of the Mexican middle class has been and will continue to be an important factor in the current conflict. This big sector, around 30% of the population, was the one that helped Calderon win the 2006 elections against the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, so the middle class support trust in the Mexican president has been key against the proposals of diverse Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) to remove the army from the streets. O’Neil states, “A secure and growing middle class would help move Mexico further down the road toward achieving democratic prosperity and toward and increasingly able partnership with the U.S.” But at the same time, it can’t be denied that the current economic climate in Mexico is going against the middle class. O’Neil wrote that “Mexico’s middle class is threatened not just by the lack of public security, but also by the growing economic crisis.”
The role of U.S-Mexico relation is a key to understanding the current problem, according to O’Neil. On one hand: “the United States needs to develop a comprehensive policy to bolster North American security -- one that treats Mexico as an equal and permanent partner.” On the other: “Mexico’s challenge is no less than recreating its law enforcement and judicial systems.” So the two countries have different tasks to approach the drug trafficking problem. Obviously, Mexico has much more direct contact with the problem, as it mainly affects its population with the ongoing violence resulting from Calderon’s declared war against drug traffic. “Since taking office in December 2006, Calderon has mobilized some 45,000 troops to combat drug trafficking organizations. Record number of interdictions, arrests, and extraditions to the United States have interrupted business as usual.”, according to O’Neil.
“The Real War in Mexico” is a referential article that informs the readers in a factual and deep way the interesting relation between Mexico’s war against drug traffic and the U.S., and, more importantly about the very base of the Mexican society, its middle class. Proof of this is the next quotation: “Benefiting from economic opening and stability, Mexico’s middle class is now nearly 30 million strong. It is these voters that ushered both Presidents Fox and Calderon into office, and that have supported Calderon’s security efforts so far.”
Shannon O’Neil does an outstanding job of allowing readers to have a greater understanding of the Mexican war on drugs, probably challenging the readers idea about the current situation in Mexico. She does not take any side on the conflict, even acknowledging the U.S. responsibility and that a different approach to his problem is needed. She claims that the solution lies in the Mexican middle class.
The democratization process that Mexico has been going through during the last twenty years has been a crucial factor in the war on drugs. Added to the current growth of the Mexican middle class, it has changed the way drug cartels interact with the Mexican state. At the same time, U.S.-Mexico relations need to be transformed into an equal, supportive interaction to combat this regional problem.
What do you guys think about this transnational issue and how it is developing throughout the Mexican territory?
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| Photo of captured members from "La Familia" drug cartel |
