HuffPo | I’ve been reading your book Narcoland, and your
vision of Mexico’s drug war caught my attention -- it’s very different
from what we’re accustomed to reading in the U.S. press. What are the
biggest misconceptions that you see in the media about the drug war?
When
I started to work on that book about Chapo Guzmán back in 2005, I had
the same misconceptions that most of the media and journalists had in
Mexico, the U.S. and the rest of the world. I had swallowed the story
that Chapo Guzmán was just a brilliant criminal -- a man so intelligent
that he was capable of subjecting the governments of Mexico and the
United States to his will. The Mexican government constantly said they
couldn’t catch him because he lived in a cave in a mountain in the
Sierra Sinaloa surrounded by people who protected him.
And those
of us in the media had only concentrated on the legend of Chapo Guzmán,
based on his violence, on the tons of drugs he trafficked, without
asking ourselves, “How does he do it? How can this man be so powerful?"
And the only way of explaining how the Sinaloa cartel and Chapo Guzmán
became so powerful is with the complicity of the government.
It
was that way, reporting on the story of Chapo Guzmán and the power he
was accumulating during the Felipe Calderón administration, that I found
that this so-called drug war was completely false. When I started
investigating, I began receiving information in documents and testimony
in the U.S. courts and interviews I did with drug traffickers that the
Sinaloa cartel enjoyed government protection since the Vicente Fox
administration, and that protection continued through the government of
Felipe Calderón. [editor's note: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox
was in office from 2000 to 2006. Former Mexican President Felipe
Calderón served from 2006 to 2012.]
I starting doing public
information requests in Mexico to see if these things being said in [the
U.S.] courts were true. What I found was that during Felipe Calderón’s
so-called drug war, the cartel that was attacked the least, that had the
fewest arrests, was the Sinaloa cartel. And in government statistics,
throughout the Felipe Calderón administration’s six years, there were
increases in marijuana production, increases in opium production,
increases in amphetamine production, increases in drug consumption in
Mexico. What kind of drug war is this where a cartel gets stronger,
becomes the most powerful cartel in the world, and on the other hand,
drug production reaches historic levels in Mexico?
5 comments:
The drug war has kept labor costs down on both sides of the border. Good for business.
[quote] I’ve been reading your book Narcoland, and your vision of Mexico’s drug war caught my attention -- it’s very different from what we’re accustomed to reading in the U.S. press. [/quote]
1) Agree with your assessment of the grand Polaroid Filter called 'The American Media"
2) Disagree with your framing of "The Mexican (so-called) War On Drugs" as the SOURCE of the violence.
There is a GOVERNMENT (elected) and a SHADOW GOVERNMENT (the drug gangs). BOTH seek to render their will inside the land mass we call "Mexico".
If the REAL government were to put down all of their arms and yield to the Shadow THE DEATH FORCE would not stop inside of Mexico.
Thus (the government initiated) "War On Drugs" is not an accurate depiction.
I have been saying for several years: "NO AMERICAN who limits himself to a jousting match with his American political enemy on the matter of Immigration across the Mexican border can pat himself on the back and claim that he GIVES A DAMN ABOUT THE MEXICAN PEOPLE. This is but a handful. The real problem are the conditions back at home that are terrorizing many, many times more people in Mexico (and Central America). If one cared about 'The Mexican' they would work to provide STRUCTURAL ASSISTANCE' to make their domiciles less hostile for living"
"2) Disagree with your framing of "The Mexican (so-called) War On Drugs" as the SOURCE of the violence."
Yes and no...
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/09/legal-marijuana-drug-cartels/
The drug cartels would have to adapt like they do in the article linked to. Then later we can legalize whatever illegal activity they are accomplishing with violence and then they'll find something else. So when the cartels move to harder drugs and sex trafficking then if we legalize those they'll have to find something else. If we can keep legalizing more and more stuff soon there won't be any violence.
What is the SOURCE of the violence?
What is THE DEATH FORCE?
* The Source Of The Violence - ANSWER: Weak National Institutions in which the "State Violence" that the United States has in a controlled form by comparison, is DISTRIBUTED INTO THE HANDS of an EQUAL AND OPPOSITE SHADOW GOVERNMENT who can reach into the "Judge's Chambers" and offer him the option of: "SILVER OR LEAD" as a means of having their way
* 'THE DEATH FORCE' - ANSWER: A natural force that will befall upon EVERY HUMAN BEING, but it can be directed to show itself via OLD AGE, DISEASE OR INJURY on the one hand, BUT in environments with lack of governance it shows itself via VIOLENCE, SYSTEMATIC MURDER or death due to exposure as tens of thousands of migrants put themselves at risk to cross a desert or a salty ocean because their HOPE to make it into the "Promised Land" is greater than the torturous existence that they presently live.
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