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Mexico’s narco nightmare will not be ended by an amnesty for traffickers Mexico’s narco nightmare will not be ended by an amnesty for traffickers
(2 months later)
Mexico sees itself today on the brink of change. The new president, the silver-haired Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has a mandate to renew the country’s politics, awarded to him by a people exasperated with poverty, outrageous inequality and corruption in daily life, and pervasive, brutal violence.Mexico sees itself today on the brink of change. The new president, the silver-haired Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has a mandate to renew the country’s politics, awarded to him by a people exasperated with poverty, outrageous inequality and corruption in daily life, and pervasive, brutal violence.
López Obrador’s accession follows the bloodiest 12 months in the bloodiest decade since the Mexican revolution. So what are his options in the wake of the catastrophic “war on drugs”, lost to the tune of up to 250,000 Mexican lives since December 2006, with another 30,000 people missing? Mexican society itself has become brutalised, beyond even the narco-bloodletting, and the crimes that blight daily life are committed with shocking levels of impunity.López Obrador’s accession follows the bloodiest 12 months in the bloodiest decade since the Mexican revolution. So what are his options in the wake of the catastrophic “war on drugs”, lost to the tune of up to 250,000 Mexican lives since December 2006, with another 30,000 people missing? Mexican society itself has become brutalised, beyond even the narco-bloodletting, and the crimes that blight daily life are committed with shocking levels of impunity.
Something has to radically change, and it is hard to imagine why any young voter would have endorsed the heirs to serial failures by President Felipe Calderón of the National Action party. Calderón kicked the hornets’ nest in 2006, taking on the cartels and unleashing the bloodshed. His successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, restored the Institutional Revolutionary party and continued the war, to no effect, along with an even more grotesque record of corruption within his government.Something has to radically change, and it is hard to imagine why any young voter would have endorsed the heirs to serial failures by President Felipe Calderón of the National Action party. Calderón kicked the hornets’ nest in 2006, taking on the cartels and unleashing the bloodshed. His successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, restored the Institutional Revolutionary party and continued the war, to no effect, along with an even more grotesque record of corruption within his government.
Mexican citizens suffer a related, raw fear of contagious violence. Its roots might lie in narco-traffic but the carnage has now spread way beyond it. It’s a culture of violence that was previously contained but is now geographically ubiquitous. There now comes a five-month transition period before López Obrador’s inauguration – a potentially fearsome limbo, after which the new president must find an efficacy in confronting this violence where his predecessors have failed.Mexican citizens suffer a related, raw fear of contagious violence. Its roots might lie in narco-traffic but the carnage has now spread way beyond it. It’s a culture of violence that was previously contained but is now geographically ubiquitous. There now comes a five-month transition period before López Obrador’s inauguration – a potentially fearsome limbo, after which the new president must find an efficacy in confronting this violence where his predecessors have failed.
Mexico’s is a war I saw at close range, while writing a book about the bloodbath between cartels and the state. Narco-cartels are corporations – astute and effective – and a clientelist system of government has cohabited with them for decades, in alliances and modes of conviviality that mutate as one generation and modus operandi of criminal syndicate bequeaths another.Mexico’s is a war I saw at close range, while writing a book about the bloodbath between cartels and the state. Narco-cartels are corporations – astute and effective – and a clientelist system of government has cohabited with them for decades, in alliances and modes of conviviality that mutate as one generation and modus operandi of criminal syndicate bequeaths another.
López Obrador may just continue the tradition, though he promises to break with two of its central propositions. One is a fusing of the army and police into a single national guard under presidential authority. For all the warnings of authoritarian “Chavismo”, this might have an effect on the insidious network that connects layers of police and military authority with various cartels. The other, more widely discussed, is an “amnesty” for drug traffickers. But to whom would this amnesty apply? If the incoming president plans a pardon for small-time operators, gang fighters who carve turf or sell on the expanding domestic market, he takes an interesting step towards the effective legalisation of some quarters of narco-traffic.López Obrador may just continue the tradition, though he promises to break with two of its central propositions. One is a fusing of the army and police into a single national guard under presidential authority. For all the warnings of authoritarian “Chavismo”, this might have an effect on the insidious network that connects layers of police and military authority with various cartels. The other, more widely discussed, is an “amnesty” for drug traffickers. But to whom would this amnesty apply? If the incoming president plans a pardon for small-time operators, gang fighters who carve turf or sell on the expanding domestic market, he takes an interesting step towards the effective legalisation of some quarters of narco-traffic.
Mexicans celebrate new president: 'We've a chance to feel hope'
Amnesty for crime at all levels will lead people to ask: where does amnesty end and impunity begin? Amnesty for organisations such as the Marxist Farc in Colombia is offered in exchange for disarmament; there’s no sign of that from the Sinaloa cartel, Los Zetas or the rising Jalisco New Generation. Will the amnesty apply, for instance, to people such as the former governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, with whom I had my own menacing encounter in 2012? He is now awaiting trial on organised crime and money-laundering charges.Amnesty for crime at all levels will lead people to ask: where does amnesty end and impunity begin? Amnesty for organisations such as the Marxist Farc in Colombia is offered in exchange for disarmament; there’s no sign of that from the Sinaloa cartel, Los Zetas or the rising Jalisco New Generation. Will the amnesty apply, for instance, to people such as the former governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, with whom I had my own menacing encounter in 2012? He is now awaiting trial on organised crime and money-laundering charges.
In Mexico – as in the international system that launders drug money – the line between legality and illegality is a lie; cartels diversify well beyond drug money into oil, minerals, tourism and so on. Will the amnesty shrug in acceptance of this, and, if so, what is supposed to change?In Mexico – as in the international system that launders drug money – the line between legality and illegality is a lie; cartels diversify well beyond drug money into oil, minerals, tourism and so on. Will the amnesty shrug in acceptance of this, and, if so, what is supposed to change?
There is one major step López Obrador could take. The drug war can never be won in or by Mexico alone – the struggle against narco-traffic, its violence and profits must be global and entail an entire international rethink.There is one major step López Obrador could take. The drug war can never be won in or by Mexico alone – the struggle against narco-traffic, its violence and profits must be global and entail an entire international rethink.
Eight years ago, at the summit of American states in Cartagena, Colombia, the host, President Juan Manuel Santos, threw down the gauntlet to drug-consuming countries in Europe and North America, where refined noses snort lines acquired at the expense of horrendous bloodshed, and the profits are laundered by banks such as Wachovia and HSBC, also with effective impunity (although both paid substantial fines).Eight years ago, at the summit of American states in Cartagena, Colombia, the host, President Juan Manuel Santos, threw down the gauntlet to drug-consuming countries in Europe and North America, where refined noses snort lines acquired at the expense of horrendous bloodshed, and the profits are laundered by banks such as Wachovia and HSBC, also with effective impunity (although both paid substantial fines).
Those countries, said Santos, must accept their co-responsibility for the violence that Colombia – and Mexico – suffer, and assume a role in combating it that begins at home, not with yet more war in the “producing” and “transit” countries. Europe and the US (even before Donald Trump) have resisted Santos’s plea, and his forthcoming replacement as Colombian president, Iván Duque, will propose nothing of the sort. López Obrador, if he has the wit and wisdom – which cannot be presumed – will resurrect Santos’s cause and speak for not just Mexico’s but Latin America’s impatience with this nightmare.Those countries, said Santos, must accept their co-responsibility for the violence that Colombia – and Mexico – suffer, and assume a role in combating it that begins at home, not with yet more war in the “producing” and “transit” countries. Europe and the US (even before Donald Trump) have resisted Santos’s plea, and his forthcoming replacement as Colombian president, Iván Duque, will propose nothing of the sort. López Obrador, if he has the wit and wisdom – which cannot be presumed – will resurrect Santos’s cause and speak for not just Mexico’s but Latin America’s impatience with this nightmare.
We have waged war on drugs for a century. So who won? | Alex Wodak
Journalists report like vultures on Mexico’s ultra-violence and hyper-cruelty, but it is a country where most daily encounters are life-affirming, invariably delightful – with resourceful, kind and hospitable people; a country deep and rich in history and culture. The dichotomy highlights something in Mexico worth liberating from the horrors.Journalists report like vultures on Mexico’s ultra-violence and hyper-cruelty, but it is a country where most daily encounters are life-affirming, invariably delightful – with resourceful, kind and hospitable people; a country deep and rich in history and culture. The dichotomy highlights something in Mexico worth liberating from the horrors.
During his campaign, López Obrador has had the audacity to evoke past presidents José María Morelos, Benito Juárez and Francisco Madero, greater men than him for sure, but whom he claims to want to emulate. These presidents did advance the best in Mexico against the worst.If López Obrador wants to even doff a sombrero to that heritage, he cannot just have an “amnesty” in response to the failure of the war on drugs. He must start to uproot the violence with solid strategies – on education, women’s rights, alleviation of poverty, ending cronyism and impunity. If he is to succeed he must nurture Mexico’s resourceful creativity and rewrite the war on drugs as a political war on war itself.During his campaign, López Obrador has had the audacity to evoke past presidents José María Morelos, Benito Juárez and Francisco Madero, greater men than him for sure, but whom he claims to want to emulate. These presidents did advance the best in Mexico against the worst.If López Obrador wants to even doff a sombrero to that heritage, he cannot just have an “amnesty” in response to the failure of the war on drugs. He must start to uproot the violence with solid strategies – on education, women’s rights, alleviation of poverty, ending cronyism and impunity. If he is to succeed he must nurture Mexico’s resourceful creativity and rewrite the war on drugs as a political war on war itself.
• Ed Vulliamy is author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline• Ed Vulliamy is author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline
MexicoMexico
OpinionOpinion
Drugs tradeDrugs trade
ColombiaColombia
DrugsDrugs
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