El combate al narcotráfico en México

Mary Anastacia O'Grady aborda el tema del narcotráfico y analiza cual es el papel que juega el consumo de drogas en los Estados Unidos.

Aquí el artículo en inglés y aquí una traducción del mismo (la versión en inglés es mucho mejor).

Aquí unos párrafos:

... That success didn't change the U.S. appetite for the mind-altering substances. Instead, drugs started flowing over land routes and Mexican cartels took charge. Now they are rumored to be in control of most of the traffic from the Andes northward. They are also suppliers of marijuana and synthetic drugs. Prohibition puts value in their product, because customers at places like San Diego State are willing to pay the premium that illegality exacts. A U.S.-Mexican joint assessment estimates that more than $10 billion in cash from drug sales flow from the U.S. to Mexico every year.

The upshot: Americans underwrite Mexico's vicious organized crime syndicates. The gringos get their drugs and the Mexican mafia gets weapons, technology and the means to buy off or intimidate anyone who gets in their way. Caught in the middle is a poor country striving to develop sound institutions for law enforcement.

O'Grady concluye su artículo señalando que si las muertes de altos mandos oficiales sucedieran en los Estados Unidos -como desgraciadamente han sucedido en México- entonces los norteamericanos estarían hablando de terminar la prohibición de drogas dada la violencia que genera. Interesante.

... Especially alarming are the number of assassinations among military personnel and municipal, state and federal police officers. The total is 439 for the 17 months and 109 so far this year. Many of these victims have been ordinary police officers whose refusal to be bought off or back off cost them their lives.

But as the murder of police chief Millan makes clear, high rank offers no safety. Two weeks before he was gunned down, Roberto Velasco, the head of the organized crime division of the federal police, was shot in the head. The assailants took his car, which leaves open the possibility that it was a random event, but most Mexicans are not buying that theory. Eleven federal law enforcement agents have been killed in ambushes and executions in the last four weeks alone.

If U.S. law enforcement agencies were losing their finest at such a rate, you can bet Americans would give greater thought to the violence generated by high demand and prohibition. Our friends in Mexico deserve equal consideration.

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