NO.481 Author: Nan Xinyi Drafting: Wind Listener
According to foreign media reports, on January 5, 2023, the son of the world's number one drug lord Guzman, Ovidiao, was arrested by Mexican authorities. In order to rescue the son of the drug lord, a fierce fight between the drug cartel and the military has led to the closure of roads and even the cancellation of airport flights. According to incomplete statistics, 95% of cocaine and 70% of marijuana on the US market are imported from Mexico. How did this small country in Central and South America become a "drug trafficking power"?
After Guzmán was arrested again in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison in 2019, his son was also arrested. Image source. Pexels
Mexico is located in a subtropical and tropical region, and its mountainous and high-altitude terrain is very suitable for the cultivation of drug plants. At the end of the 15th century, Spanish colonists first introduced cannabis to Mexico. In the mid-19th century, opium poppies also came to Mexico with Asian immigrants. By the early 20th century, drug cultivation in Mexico had grown on a scale and began to be smuggled to the United States. Between 1910 and 1920, there were frequent military coups in Mexico, the political situation was in turmoil for a long time, and the anti-drug policy was completely fanciful. However, at that time, Mexico's drug problem was mainly reflected in drug production, smuggling and abuse, and had not yet turned into violence.
Aerial views of San Rafael Hill, the highest peak in Mexico's Eastern Sierra Madre. Image source. Pexels
After the end of World War II, the Mexican government actively promoted the comprehensive industrialization of the national economy and vigorously developed light and heavy industries. By the 60s, Mexico had transformed itself from a single agricultural country into an emerging country with an initial modern industrial system, with an average annual GDP growth rate of 8%, an economic achievement also hailed as the "Mexican miracle". The Mexican government's economic policy of "heavy industry over agriculture" soon led to an imbalance in industrial and agricultural development, bankrupt a large number of peasants, and widened the gap between rich and poor in the country. In Mexico at the time, the average farmer earned only three dollars a day, but growing coca leaves could make twenty dollars a day or more.
People in the city have money! The picture shows Reform Avenue in Mexico City. Image source. Pexels
Coca leaves extract cocaine as a drug and are therefore banned from cultivation. Image source. Pexels
A century ago, Mexican dictatorial President Porfirio Díaz exclaimed, "Poor Mexico, too far from God, too close to America." On January 1, 1994, NAFTA was officially established, and Mexico exported tropical fruits to the United States, while the United States exported the country's staple food, corn, to Mexico. Mexican farmers grow corn with less mechanization, resulting in increased production costs, with U.S. farmers producing a ton of corn costing $92.74 in 1989, compared to $258.62 for Mexican farmers. Mexican corn is obviously uncompetitive in the face of American corn, and when American corn completely defeats Mexican corn through low-price dumping, American capitalists will naturally no longer sell corn to the Mexican people at low prices, and the price of corn in Mexico rises rapidly.
Corn Base, Iowa, USA. Image source. Pexels
When Mexican farmers can no longer grow corn to feed their families, growing drugs becomes a last resort. In Mexico, one hectare of maize cultivation earns only 12,000 pesos, while growing one hectare of cannabis and opium poppy earns up to 400,000 pesos. Even farmers who lost their land would earn 300 pesos a day to work for drug dealers, but 54 pesos a day if they continued to grow corn. This environment has led to an increasing number of farmers taking the initiative to grow drugs, expanding Mexico's drug market. This development has also given rise to conglomerates of drug cartels known as "drug cartels", which cover the entire industrial chain of drugs from cultivation and production to smuggling.
Drug "interest industry chain". Image source. Pexels
The PRI government, which had been in power in Mexico since 1929, formed informal "sanctuary relations" with local drug trafficking organizations, which bribed federal officials and local governments, which acquiesced in and even protected drug production and smuggling by drug trafficking organizations, providing some protection for drug lords. By 1998, about 300,000 farmers in Mexico were engaged in drug production and trafficking, and 468,000 people were involved in the drug trade. Because the drug industry brings economic income to the people at the bottom, Mexican drug lords are not only not hated by society, but have become the object of worship of the people at the bottom.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, founded by Calles, ruled Mexico for 71 years.
Mexico is a land neighbor of the United States, and since the 1970s, Mexican drug lords have often charged Colombian drug traffickers a "transit fee" to bring drugs into the United States. As Colombian drug trafficking organizations were attacked by the United States in the late 20th century and gradually declined, the center of gravity of drug production and trade in Latin America shifted to Mexico. Mexican drug lords have built many underground smuggling tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border, allowing all kinds of drugs to flow into the United States from Latin America.
Drug smuggling corridor at the U.S.-Mexico border. Image source. Pexels
The United States is a big drug market. The picture shows the "zombie" on Kensington Street in Philadelphia, USA. Image source. Pexels
American addicts are not the only source of Mexican drug lords, as a Spanish-speaking country, Mexican drug lords also set their sights on European addicts, and Spain has become the first stop for Mexican drugs to enter European countries. Since 2012, Mexican drug lords have also collaborated with Italian gangs in an attempt to develop southern Italian ports into the second largest European drug transit point after Spain, according to a 2015 report by the NGO Crime Insight.
In 2000, Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico, ending the PRI regime after 71 years. When Fox came to power trying to eliminate drug trafficking organizations, his first challenge was to cut off the "sanctuary relationship" between local government, the judiciary and drug lords. To this end, the Fox administration reorganized the federal judicial police department, which was deeply eroded by drug trafficking organizations, into the "FBI" and vigorously dispatched police to arrest drug traffickers. However, Fox's aggressive anti-drug policy upset the balance of drug trafficking organizations, and after losing government control, competition within drug trafficking organizations intensified, and drug traffickers forced the Fox government to compromise by attacking civilians and government agencies, and according to statistics, the number of people killed by drug violence increased from 1,080 to 2,100 per year during Fox's tenure.
Vicente Fox, who broke the unspoken rules of asylum. Image source. Pexels
In 2006, National Action Party candidate Calderón won the Mexican presidential election, and after freeing himself from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Calderón's anti-drug policy was further strengthened. At the beginning of Calderón's tenure, Mexico had four national drug trafficking organizations: the Tijuana Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juarez Cartel and the Gulf Cartel. These drug trafficking organizations are like independent political entities, not only have a well-developed organizational structure, but even buy weapons from the American arms dealer next door and build up armed forces capable of resisting the government.
Calderón was sworn in as President of Mexico. Image source. Pexels
Calderon believed that the Fox government's use of police power to fight drug traffickers was completely a drop in the bucket, so he used the military to fight drug trafficking organizations, and the "drug war" between drug lords and the Mexican government officially began. In 2007, Mexico signed the Merida Initiative with the United States, which provided Mexico with $1.4 billion in anti-drug assistance, provided weapons to the Mexican military, and even sent helicopters to spray pesticides to destroy drug lords' drug-growing areas.
Calderon with then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Image source. Pexels
Soldiers in the Mexican state of Mikente confront drug traffickers in the "war on drugs". Image source. Pexels
Although the "war on drugs" has dealt a heavy blow to drug trafficking organizations to a certain extent, it has also caused some adverse consequences. The crackdown on "drug cartels" quickly splintered into smaller drug trafficking organizations that were more difficult to control, with bloody retaliations against civilians and state institutions, fueling more drug violence. During Calderón's six years in power, some 60,000 Mexicans were killed and 25,000 disappeared as a result of drug violence. In addition, too much military investment in cracking down on drug traffickers has led to insufficient power to eliminate drug cultivation, and drug production has not declined, but has increased, which can be described as falling into an embarrassing situation of "cutting and sorting out chaos".
The drug problem has become a social problem in Mexico because of the country's serious poverty problem. Young people in Mexico are out of school and unemployed, and the economic downturn prevents them from having good employment opportunities. In the end, these young people could only choose to join the lucrative drug trafficking organization and became the new blood of the drug trafficking organization. The policy of armed drug control pursued by recent presidents has not been effective, but has exacerbated social unrest, and the local population has become tired of the drug problem, and there are even voices of drug decriminalization to replace military anti-drug control.
Fast forward to 2018, when the left-wing National Regeneration Movement party won the election and its candidate AMLO was elected president. In contrast to the anti-drug line of previous presidents, AMLO has adopted an anti-drug policy focused on crime prevention. In 2019, he announced an end to the war on drugs after taking office, shifting his attitude towards drugs from prohibition to diversion to reduce violence. AMLO's party also introduced a bill to decriminalize drugs, and on March 10, 2021, it formally passed a preliminary bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Congress. After the AMLO government came to power, it also actively saved government spending and invested a large amount of money to help unemployed young people find employment, in order to further reduce the people's dependence on the drug industry.
"Unblocking combined" AMRADOR (center). Image source. Pexels
However, the AMLO government still faces serious challenges. Mexico's new government is focused on curbing drugs through social reforms, but without strong local governments, drug violence can only be alleviated, not completely solved. In addition, according to the Mexican constitution, the president can only serve one term, and if AMLO's National Regeneration Movement party is not re-elected in the next election, the continuity of anti-drug policy will be interrupted. Mexico is a federal country, each state has independent laws, the division of political power between the federal government and the local governments of the states also affects the effectiveness of anti-drug policies, and Mexico's drug problem is still likely to be reversed.
Mexican Chamber of Deputies. Image source. Pexels
From an international perspective, AMLO's anti-drug policy has also seriously affected U.S.-Mexico relations. During the Cold War, Central and South American countries became a battleground between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States indirectly uses the war on drugs to use force to attack anti-American and leftist forces in Latin America. After the end of the Cold War, the U.S. government continued to wage drug wars in Latin America, from Colombia to Mexico, trying to keep the drug problem in Latin American countries. But AMLO's initiative to abandon the war on drugs will undoubtedly affect drug consumption and social problems in the United States.
On April 5, 2019, Trump warned Mexico to close the U.S.-Mexico border and add more tariffs on Mexican imports if the latter failed to solve its drug smuggling problem. The U.S. stance has also largely influenced Mexico's drug policy. According to foreign media news, Mexico's arrest of Guzman's son was just before the North American Leaders' Summit, which is quite pleasing to the United States.
AMLO met with then-U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in 2020. Image source. Pexels
Miguel, the first Mexican drug lord known as the "godfather of drugs", has a sentence worth pondering: "Defeating poverty is the best way to eliminate drugs." "Mexico's drug problem is not a one-off problem, nor is it entirely a unilateral problem of Mexico, but is a phenomenon caused by various factors such as the legacy of colonization, the uneven distribution of social wealth, and the excessive dependence of small countries on the economy and social and moral problems of large countries. After years of development, Mexican drug lords have reached a tacit agreement with American arms dealers, who sell drugs to American addicts, and arms dealers provide weapons to drug trafficking organizations to make money. Under the operation of this "dark economy", Mexico may never be able to get rid of the name of "country of drug lords".
Reference: Capturing Mexican drug lords: An unending tug-of-war. Zhao Qian; From the War on Drugs to Drug Decriminalization: The Development of Drug Violence in Mexico. Lu Lingling; AdamWaters:InsideMexico’sDrugWars
* This article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of Geovalley