Mexico's Strategy Against Cartels
Today's Washington Post headline, "New Strategy Urged in Mexico," warns that Mexican President "Calderón's U.S.-backed war against drug cartels is losing political support" due to a failed strategy of militarization.
There are now sustained calls in Mexico for a change in tactics, even from allies within Calderón's political party, who say the deployment of 45,000 soldiers to fight the cartels is a flawed plan that relies too heavily on the blunt force of the military to stem soaring violence and lawlessness.
According to the article, "U.S. officials said they now believe Mexico faces a longer and bloodier campaign than anticipated and is likely to require more American aid." However, just throwing more aid at the problem is not going to solve the increased violence and bloodshed in Mexico, and as Bloggings by Boz pointed out this morning, what Mexico really needs is a strategy, not a new strategy.
[I]t's up to Calderon and others in Mexico to piece it all together, provide a vision, set the priorities and lay out some sort of timetable for what will likely be a long struggle, one that will likely continue beyond Calderon's presidency and will have to adapt to changing events. Calderon doesn't need a new strategy, he just needs a strategy. Then we can debate the strategy overall and the components within.
United States and Mexican government officials however, according to the Washington Post, "say the military strategy, while difficult, is working. Since Calderón took office in December 2006, authorities have arrested 76,765 suspected drug traffickers at all levels and have extradited 187 cartel members to the United States. Calderón's security advisers said they have few options besides the army -- as they just begin to vet and retrain the police forces they say will ultimately take over the fight. " Yet, "drug-related deaths during the 2 1/2 years of Calderón's administration passed 12,000 this month. Rather than shrinking or growing weaker, the Mexican cartels are using their wealth and increasing power to expand into Central America, cocaine-producing regions of the Andes and maritime trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific...." As pointed out in the Proceso article highlighted on this blog yesterday, mass troop deployments and "tough talk" have not stopped the cartels, and the lack of coordination, due to a lack of a coherent strategy, stifles the attempt to regain control of areas controlled and overrun by the various drug cartels. Perhaps instead of forging forward on the same path of increased military deployments, Mexico and the United States need to sit down and develop a comprehensive and coordinated strategy that focuses more heavily on human rights, and judicial and police reform.