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Sound a bit far fetched, perhaps the plot of the newest straight to DVD movie? I wish it were, but sadly it is not. This headline is precisely the reason, regardless of the increasing violence, death, and chaos, Mexico cannot back down against the drug trafficking Cartels which have taken our nation hostage.
During a breakfast at the Mexican Embassey in Paris, Mexico’s Secretary of Economics, Gerardo Ruiz Mateo, presented a cold, hard fact: If President Felipe Calderon had not initiated his iron fisted, no holds barred, war against drugs, the next President of the Republic of Mexico, would without a doubt, be a drug lord.
According to Ruiz Mateo, Calderon’s abrupt change in Mexico’s war on Drugs strategy may very well be what saves our country from becoming part of an absolute Narco ruled territory.
The difference in Calderon’s fight lies in strategy. Previous administrations chose to focus on taking down Cartel bosses while paying little attention to trafficking corridors and cargo.
“Previously, taking down kingpins was the War on Drug’s only strategy, now we focus on the economical logistics and costs as well. This is a business, an unwanted business, everyday we fight, we cause the logistical costs of passing drugs thru Mexico to increase. By doing so, we have caused the price of drugs to increase in the United States by almost 70%.
-Gerardo Ruiz Mateo, Mexico’s Secretary of Economics
What are the consequences of such moves? At first one might think by raising the costs, the drug traffickers will only have higher profits, wrong. As any good businessman knows production costs weigh heavily on not only demand but the very essence of any business. This is exactly why so many countries begin to outsource national work to foreign land, if production and transport costs cannot be controlled, profits decline, businesses begin to fail.
In Mexico’s case, drug trafficking has taken a heavy toll on our nation; I can only hope Calderon’s continued efforts create a dire economic inbalance which will cause this particular business to become a drowning ship and sink towards the bottom of an endless abyss, taking all of its employers and employees with it.
RSS 
Of course legalization will never work, billions are fattening wallets on BOTH sides of the border. If we were to legalize, of course we could tax, but taxes don’t fatten personal wallets.
As for the Mexican military being in Chapo’s wallet, while I’m SURE there are some who are, I think they are by far the most loyal we have, their diligence and records of busting kingpins and seizing tons from BOTH the Gulf and Sinaloan Cartels are proving far from ALL are being bought by Chapo.
Of course that has nothing to do with the AWOL military turned mercenary ZETAS, which have become a cartel in their own.
”WTF ?!” is what I think every morning when I roll out of bed and see this is REALITY,: cartel paid protests, decapitations, mutilations, and kidnappings.
”WTF ?!” is what our soldiers think when they are faced with rocket launchers, grenades, and armour piercing AR-15 ambushes.
”WTF ?!” is what the Cartels think when another 7 tons of cocaine are seized by the Mexican Navy, another kingpin is busted, another corrider is shutdown, and another American buyer can no longer afford to purchase to redistribute.
” WTF ?!” is what past administrations and ex-President’s are saying when they see we finally have a President, who may be outnumbered, but has the heart, pride, love, and b@lls to fight for our country’s independence, even if it means uprooting decades of blissful lies, deceit, and corruption on all government and judicial levels.
”WTF?!” seems to be a common national catch phrase, Mexico’s Drug war reality.
According to you and your official stats our President is already a narco, and there is no hope for this country; Should we just call the whole charade off?
The drug war was made official by Nixon, but has been going on since long before. The ”bilateral”, ”international” war on Drugs is a farce..That I agree with.
Peace to you and to Mexico...
H ehas to work hard and fast to give us any chance getting real progress past 2012.
The reason why the business of drugs has become so lucrative is because it only costs a few thousand lives. What’s the value of human life to criminal syndicates, anyway?
I truly commiserate with Mexico on this overwhelming drug problem.
Let me share how the Philippines has been dealing with the problem of drugs.
In 2002, a severe law was passed called the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act that upped the penalties to life imprisonment and lowered the volume qualification for violations to a mere few grams of both ’shabu’ (local meth) and marijuana). (Ecstasy isn’t really much of a threat because of its prohibitive cost.)
For a while, it looked like it was the penultimate piece of legislation that the Philippines had been waiting for. Alas, it proved to be toothless because drug traffickers here are mostly Chinese nationals (financiers of meth labs and smugglers of chemical precursors for meth) and Muslims (street trade traffickers). The Chinese traffickers simply smuggled themselves out of the country while the Muslims traffickers simply run away to Mindanao, then through the southern backdoor to leave the country.
For a while, the Philippines was deeply mired in the drug trade (prior to 2002) and was already looking like Colombia, as it was already able to supply ’shabu’ to Europe and other Western countries.
The Philippine government saw the effect of drugs on the population, so what it did was attempt to cut the demand by cutting the supply. It maneuvered a bit its strategy to set aside going after nefarious personalities (they disappear just before a raid, anyway) and just go after the drug supplies.
The narcotics law enforcers went on a blitkrieg identifying ’shabu’ labs and burning them down. The government gave stricter mandate to the Coast Guard to man the seas more (the Philippines being an archipelago has thousands upon thousands of kilometers of coastlines that are very conducive to smuggling). Marijuana farming was also rampant in the highlands, so with the help of military and police intelligence, these farms were identified and consequently burned down.
Looking back, I can analyze the drug situation in the Philippines as this: the demand went down because the supply went down. So far, this strategy of supply-and-demand has proven to be useful.
I think, if Calderon sticks to his strategy of going after the cargo, it might just prove to be effective. Kudos to him!
The solution to the drug problem isn’t a social one but an economic one.
What’s a drug lord without his stash?
Thank you so much for commenting. While I have heard bits and pieces of Philippine drug/war on drugs history, I have to admit, I am still quite ignorant.
President Calderon was left with more than a full plate when he came into office in 2006. Since then he has embarked on a wide spread, almost 360 degree angled, full fledge war on drugs and all included aspects: corruption amongst police and government officials, cartel bosses, narco-corridors, but like the Philippean government, he has taken a focus on the BUSINESS/ECONOMIC aspect..
Just like you said, the kingpins are rarely caught (although Calderon has managed to bag some very big fish and extradited them to the U.S. before they could buy themselves out)and when they are, there is always another man ready to take the lead, and another, and another.
Lately he has been increasing the MEXICAN NAVY movements through ports and sea and the Mexican Army continues to sweep and command cities and states with more than 50,000 soldiers patrolling our nation.
You say ”prior to 2002”, that wasn’t so long ago your country was in turmoil, I hope, we can see the same progress and find our country free once again.
Thanks Grace, you made my day.