Mackenzie A.

Simper
POLS 2100 Intro to International Politics
Informative Webpage

The Drug War in Mexico

Background and History:
The Mexican Drug War is an armed conflict between drug cartels and the Mexican
government which officially began on December 11, 2006 when Mexicos President Felipe
Caldern sent Mexican Army soldiers to end drug violence in Michoacn. Because of Mexicos
geographic location it has long been used as a conduit for smuggling illegal substances into the
United States. During prohibition, Mexico was used as a source of alcohol and when prohibition
ended in 1933 the illegal drug trade began. As illegal drug use began to increase in the United
States, large-scale smuggling of drugs from Mexico began in the late 1960s. The trade has grown
ever since and the cartels (smuggling organizations) have grown in size, wealth, and power. At
the beginning of the 21
st
century the drug trade grew substantially and cartels began to
increasingly fight amongst themselves in turf wars and resort to violence in order to protect their
business interests.
i
The Mexican government paid little military attention until Calderns 2006
decision to crackdown on drug trafficking. This caused an escalation in violence and a full-out
war between the Mexican government and the various drug cartels. Since 2006, approximately
120,000 have been killed due to drug-related violence.
ii

According to Mexican authorities there are twelve major cartels throughout Mexico and
countless smaller groups. As the cartels have grown, they have expanded to more than just drugs.
For example, the Knights Templar cartel in western Mexico has illegal mining, logging, and
extortion as their top sources of income. Along the border, migrant smuggling and kidnapping
and extortion are common practices of cartels. I've never looked at them as drug-trafficking
organizations, said Samuel Logan, director of Southern Pulse security firm. They're
multinational corporations that will react to market pressures and do what they have to do to stay
in business.
iii



Violence in the Border Area:
. At least 259 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico from December 2006 to February
2011 some of these were targeted U.S. government employees. Since the violence has
escalated, there have been fears of the threat spreading into the US. Of the 34,612 fatalities
reported by the Mexican government from December 2006 to December 2010, 47.7% were in
states bordering the U.S., and 28.1% were in municipalities within 50 km of the U.S. border.
iv

Much of the violence is between rival cartels. Along the border cartels fight for control of
trafficking routes into the United States. These routes include elaborate tunnels. In San Diego
alone, eight major passages used to smuggle drugs have been found since 2006. Figure 1 shows
drug war fatalities in Mexico by state. Many of the fatalities are in countries close to the border
the most fatalities have occurred in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico
and Texas to the North.
v


Figure 1
In addition to smuggling drugs from Mexico to the United States, violence in the border
is also caused by the smuggling of firearms from the United States to Mexico. There are
approximately 6700 licensed firearm dealers in the US across the border, but only one legal
firearms retailer in Mexico. Nearly 70% of guns recovered from Mexican criminal activity can
be traced back to sales in the United States. The firearms are bought in the US by an agent who
smuggles them back to Mexico to the drug cartels in exchange for money, a process known as a
straw purchase. In the 1990s, guns were used in only 20% of all murders now they are used
in more than half of all murders, usually by members of drug cartels.
vi


Causes of the Mexican Drug War:
Mexico has long been a source of drugs and drug trafficking has been present on a large
scale since the 1960s. As drug use rose in the eighties, the geographic location of Mexico made it
ideal for smuggling in illegal drugs produced in South America, such as cocaine from Columbia.
According to the US State Department, 90% of the cocaine that enters the U.S. comes through
Mexico. It is also a main supplier of cannabis, methamphetamine, and heroin.
vii

There are many reasons drug trafficking in Mexico reached a point of large-scale
violence in 2006, including increased use of drugs, sources of drugs, and poverty.
From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of Mexicans living in extreme or moderate poverty rose from
35% to 46%. This may have affected the growth of the drug cartels, as lower-class people
become more eager to join criminal organizations for the easy money. Mexicos primary
education system is ranked 116
th
in the world, producing many school dropouts who have limited
choices about work and so end up fighting for cartels.
viii

Figure 2 represents the number of emergency department drug mentions in the United
States, an indicator of how common drug use is. It is clear that illegal drug use has sharply risen
since the 1960s.
ix
As the demand for illegal drugs in the United States grows, drug trafficking in
Mexico also grows. This has a snowball effect, resulting in the growth of drug cartels, which
results in increased violence.

Figure 2


U.S. and Mexican Responses to the Drug War:
After Caldern went on the offensive with Operation Michoacan, there were criticisms
that actively trying to end the drug cartels was only making things worse. A large problem is the
power struggles that arise when a drug cartel leader is killed or arrested. Most of the deaths of
the drug war were members of drug cartels, killed in turf wars or internal fights. In 2012, Enrique
Pena Nieto replaced Caldern as president of Mexico. Pena Nieto has promised to place the
emphasis on ending drug-related violence, rather than arresting drug cartel leaders. Homicides
per month have dropped during his administration, but only slightly.
x

Another large problem is the fear that cartels have corrupted the military and the
government. Since 2006, Mexicos National Human Rights Commission has received almost
5800 complaints about military abuse.
xi
Mexican police may be easy to bribe due to their small
salary, which they could double or triple merely by looking the other way. The government has
conducted purges of police forces in recent years in 2007 then-president Caldern purged 284
federal police commanders. However, corruption is still very prevalent in the judicial system due
to lack of transparency and autocratic judges.
xii

In 2008, the U.S. Congress signed into legislature the Merida Initiative, a security
cooperation agreement between the United States and Mexico to fight organized crime and
violence associated with drug trafficking. Since the Merida Initiative began, the United States
has supplied more than 1.6 billion dollars to help Mexico and Central American countries. The
government has provided law enforcement training and supplies, helicopters, and technology
such as x-ray scanners to help Mexican authorities detect illicit goods at checkpoints.
xiii

Figure 3 compares the percentage of homicides due to drugs in the US and Mexico. The
percentage has steadily increased in Mexico since 2006.
xiv
It is clear that the Mexican Drug War
is a very real armed conflict constantly ending lives. Some say that the solution is to de-fund the
cartels by legalizing drugs. With the United States legalizing recreational marijuana in two
states, perhaps this is the direction that will be taken in the future.
xv


Figure 3









i
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/02/mexican-drug-war.html
ii
http://ncronline.org/news/global/counting-mexicos-drug-victims-murky-business
iii
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/17/drug-traffickingasmallpartofmexicancartelsincome.html
iv
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/mexicodrugwar.htm
v
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/mexico-drug-tunnel_n_4183476.html
vi
http://ncronline.org/news/global/us-gun-policy-no-longer-domestic-weapons-are-smuggled-mexico
vii
http://www.cfr.org/mexico/mexicos-drug-war/p13689
viii
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mexico-poverty_n_3673568.html
ix
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2010/05/ondcp-on-defensive-as-drug-war-exposed.html
x
http://www.shoutoutuk.org/2014/04/22/getting-the-cartels-a-media-game/
xi
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/mexico
xii
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34215.pdf
xiii
http://www.state.gov/j/inl/merida/
xiv
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_20270830/mexicos-drug-killings-soar-above-us-figures
xv
http://www.cato.org/policy-report/mayjune-2009/mexicos-drug-war-growing-crisis-our-southern-border