This Mexico does not exist, he says, except in our minds in North America.
"There is a second Mexico where the war is for drugs, for the enormous money to be made in drugs, where the police and the military fight for their share, where the press is restrained by the murder of reporters and feasts on a steady diet of bribes, and where the line between government and the drug world has never existed."
The US Drug Enforcement Agency has 87 field offices in 63 countries. WikiLeaks revelations reported in The New York Times [1] show how it maneuvers in this cesspool, often moving as a US intelligence agency into non-drug areas of activity. Two examples:
The right wing president of Panama asks the DEA to tap the phones of his enemies. The DEA refuses. Meanwhile, a leaked cable reports the president's cousin is smuggling tens of millions in drug money each month through Panama's main airport.
In Guinea, the biggest dope dealer at one point is the president's son. A DEA cable reports on the hoopla surrounding the public burning of $6.5 million worth of cocaine and marijuana. It is clear to the DEA they are burning manioc flour and a substitute for marijuana.
The roots of our disastrous Drug War are to be found decades ago when the decision was made to attack the problem with police and military violence and prisons. Demagogic rhetoric and popular entertainment did the rest. And we now find ourselves tightly belted-in riding a roller-coaster to Hell. Arguably, we are socially more addicted to police and the military than we are to drugs.
The Global War On Drugs is becoming indistinguishable from the Global War On Terror. As Mexico makes clear, what started as a policy to close off the supply of drugs into the US has become a flat-out killing war between ruthless and grotesquely armed factions. Soon it will be: Bring in the lethal drones.
It's long past time to address the drug problem in the United States in the United States. If we expended half the resources we spend on the Drug War on serious harm reduction programs we'd be much better off. My inmate friend Bill is the perfect example. Spending many thousands of dollars warehousing him in prison is an utter waste. That money would be more useful in real world programs addressing his problems and helping him cope. The money we would save could help create jobs, improve education and re-build a crumbling infrastructure.
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