America's Drug War is Devastating Mexico

By Brian Saady

It's no secret that drug cartels have wreaked havoc upon Mexico, but the examples provided in this book will be unimaginable for the average American citizen. The profits from the drug war have enabled the cartels to incorporate into paramilitarized forces and their exploits adversely affect the lives of every Mexican in a variety of ways, such as the destruction of the rule of law and freedom of the press, along with rampant embezzlement of public funds. Mexico's drug traffickers have become an omnipresent force of organized crime that terrorizes the entire nation. Furthermore, the government can't provide basic security for the average Mexican citizen. These criminals can act with impunity, in part, because the corruption of public officials and political offices reaches the highest levels.

Brian Saady is a tenacious researcher who provides a wealth of information that has never been published for an American audience. For example, there are several details included about the political coverup of the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping (43 students) that have not been reported inside the U.S.

All in all, this is crucial reading material for anyone concerned about the human catastrophe that has unfolded due to America's war on drugs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Saady
• Release date: Oct 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370762972

Brian Saady

Brian Saady is a politically-independent author who has a healthy dose of criticism for both major political parties. The pages of his books are filled with eye-opening revelations that are backed up with extensive, academic-style documentation. Although some of the subject matter is complex and controversial, his expert analysis is easily digestible and it provides the necessary balance to inform both casual readers and devoted academics. Brian is a freelance writer whose work focuses on corruption, crony capitalism, human rights, and civil liberties, among other issues. He has been published by a diverse group of news outlets that spans the full political spectrum, i.e. Centrist, Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Progressive, etc. That list includes The Palm Beach Post, CounterPunch, The American Conservative, AntiWar.com, Leafly, The Mises Institute, High Times, Blacklisted News, among others. He is also a special contributor to Gambling 911.

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America’s Drug War is Devastating Mexico

Brian Saady

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

Image for the cover art from Wikimedia Commons by Borderland Beat

www.briansaady.com

Contents

Introduction

Plata o Plomo

Political Protection

The Consequences of Political Reform

The Drug War Can’t Be Won

Organized Crime

Military Intervention

Conclusion

Afterword

Books by Brian Saady

Notes and References

Introduction

Support for the war on drugs continues to decline every year for numerous reasons, but there is one aspect of this debate that desperately needs more attention:

America’s drug policy has caused an absolute humanitarian disaster south of our border.

There’s only one way to solve this crisis -- we have to end the drug war. Oddly enough, Donald Trump once forcefully supported this concept. Twenty-seven years ago at a luncheon hosted by The Miami Herald, Donald Trump said, You have to legalize drugs to win that war. He also blamed the politicians who didn’t have the guts to make such a decision. Oh, how the times have changed.

In June of this year, President Trump sent this tweet:

He presumably cited a study by the International Institute for Strategic Study that recognized Mexico’s 23,000 intentional homicides in 2016 as the second highest in the world only behind Syria. However, that’s not an entirely accurate assessment because that study doesn’t factor population size. Hence, that group subsequently unpublished the study. Nonetheless, what’s happening in Mexico is clearly a catastrophe.

Supporters of the drug war never seem to recognize that every successful enforcement operation inevitably leads to more violence and insecurity in this region of the world. Despite the capture of El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel is still believed to be the most dominant trafficking organization in the country.

To fully understand Mexico’s rising homicide rate, we first have to be aware of the Sinaloa Cartel’s structure. It’s not a typical hierarchal organization. Instead, the Sinaloa Cartel can best be described as a group of several cartels aligned under one organization. That’s why this cartel is also known as the Federation.

As a result of the extradition El Chapo and the capture a few other key Sinaloa leaders, a power vacuum emerged. This is similar to our country’s attempts at regime change in the Middle East that have led to the rise of militarized rebel groups, such as ISIS.

There are now ten different groups within the cartel battling for control of this powerful organization. In turn, rival organizations, such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, have taken advantage of the infighting to wage warfare in key trafficking regions once dominated by the Sinaloa Cartel.

This shake-up of the underworld’s power structure has been particularly brutal along the border. Tijuana used to be a stronghold for the Sinaloa Cartel. However, the drug war’s effect is quite visible in this city (population 1.7 million) where last year there were a record-high 910 homicides. (For a point of reference, Chicago, which has a population of 2.7 million, had the highest number of murders last year in the U.S. with 781.) This year’s homicide rate in Tijuana is on pace to surpass last year’s.

At times, drug cartel