Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, July 31, 2020

How to beat cartels without firing a shot

TY Gus and "Mica" Borderland Beat  Source

On October 17th, 2019, with pressure from the US government, the newly formed Mexican National Guard surrounded Ovidio Guzmán López’s house in Culiacán. Lopez, the son of infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, had been wanted by the US government since February. Several gun battles throughout the city ensued, but Lopez and his henchmen were able to outnumber and overpower the National Guard. The government forces withdrew and were not able to arrest the younger Guzmán, nor extradite him to the U.S.— to the dismay of Washington. If the U.S. is serious about reducing cartel violence in Mexico and drug trafficking into the U.S., then it needs to revise its policy away from securitized efforts, like the Mérida initiative, and support efforts for socio-economic development.

 In 2007, US Congress approved the Mérida Initiative, a $3.1 billion plan that has provided military grade planes and helicopters, ammunition, and torture training. The initiative’s main objective was to reduce illicit drug flow into the United States. 

However, it’s important to note that this securitized approach was not preferred by Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Instead of fighting the cartels, Obrador had implemented a policy of “Abrazos, no balazos“: hugs, not bullets. He argued that access to jobs and better wages, especially for the youth and those living in rural areas, were a better strategy to reduce cartel violence than taking on the cartels directly with military force. However, this softer approach was ignored by the U.S. government.

The failure of Mérida 

To reduce $29 billion of illicit drugs coming into the country, the U.S. should acknowledge that the Mérida Initiative is a failure. Since the drug war officially started in 2006, violent crime in Mexico has steadily increased, with 2019 the bloodiest year on record. While Cocaine, the primary export of the cartels to the United States, continues to see a rise in its usage. A better plan would be for Congress to approve funds that focus on providing development assistance to create job opportunities, improve education inequality, and develop infrastructure. Addressing Mexico’s income inequality—among the highest for developed countries—cannot be an afterthought.

Mexico is a good example of how unemployment figures are misleading. Although it ended 2019 with 3.4% unemployment, 46% of the population remained below the poverty line. Underemployment is particularly an issue for those with higher education, as most sources of employment in Mexico do not require specialized knowledge or work experience. As a result, young Mexicans are drawn to the drug game, which is undeniably lucrative: “El Chapo” was able to generate over $ 12 billion in drug revenue before his arrest. If more jobs become available in professional fields, young Mexicans would not be forced to join a cartel or take a poverty-level wage.

Those without tertiary education in Mexico are at a greater risk for joining a cartel. The youth is more likely to be recruited when they are not in school. This is problematic, as 50% of Mexicans do not even receive upper secondary education— more than three times the OECD average of 15%. The more young people that are not in school, the higher number of potential recruits the cartels can prey on. Government spending per student is the lowest in the OECD- compounding the problem. Rural areas, southern states, and indigenous populations are disproportionately affected as well. For example, literacy rates in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca—home to the largest percentages of indigenous peoples in Mexico—are more than 10 times lower than in Mexico City or the northern state of Nuevo León.
ABOVE Obama announced holding funds because of human rights violations...then quietly released them

Further plaguing the marginalized rural, southern, and indigenous populations are infrastructure deficits, which exacerbate the poverty cycle and increase the appeal of joining a cartel. These communities often face a combination of unpaved roads, lack of electricity and potable water, as well as few social development programs. Since many of these settlements are established without government permission, the residents do not pay property tax. The absence of taxes disincentives the government to invest in these communities.

Given the high level of inequality in Mexico, the U.S. would be better off working with the Mexican government to address these inequities, rather than pouring more funds into the Merida Initiative. 

Development policies deprive the cartels of soldiers more efficiently than military policies. Unfortunately, corruption in Mexico and the political appeal of military policies makes the implementation of an economic development strategy challenging. The short term will provide obstacles as the coronavirus has brought an increased military presence back to the streets. However, President Obrador has committed to promoting economic development during his presidency, while USAID has also started to change its tone. In 2018, USAID directed ten times more funds toward international narcotics and law enforcement than any other project. Fortunately, this year USAID concentrated the most funding towards workers’ rights, while narcotics and law enforcement was not even considered a top ten priority.

Lastly, Congress can also play a role by defunding the Merida Initiative and supporting the Mexican government’s efforts to create better job opportunities, improve education, and develop infrastructure. While this strategy will take time to succeed, the evidence shows that this is the best and only long-term solution to reducing cartel violence.
Below is the Merida initiative report...


45 comments:

  1. Unfortunately corruption is a way of life in Mexico and will never change. A professor of mine at SDSU once told me "The best thing that can ever happen to Mexico is if the Gringos would take it over."

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    1. His supporting evidence must have been Iraq and Afghanistan huh@11:33

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    2. unfortunately abuse of drugs is a way of life of U,S,A
      his the principal problem about w of w worldwide

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    3. Well at NPRSU, I was told Mexico is a quaqmire, nothing will ever get fixed.

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    4. The gringos have taken it over and it's worse.

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    5. Another illegal war is not what's best for Mexico. Rather, its citizens who need to revolt against a corrupt government.
      Iraq is a perfect example of what will transpire if the gringos invade.

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    6. Your professor is an idiot. Gringos are the reason Mexico is the way it is right now. Always secretly having their hands in the cookie jar.

      If the government of Mexico wasn’t in bed with the US government with the cartels in the middle then things would be better.

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    7. No, No they don't want it

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    8. The gringos can’t even keep their own country under control, much less Mexico. Lmfao

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    9. THE GRINGOS declared the WAR OF DRUGS , 40 yrs plus and still they cant even make a dent AMIGO

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  2. Animo Sicarios.
    Gente Nueva Special Forces Tier 1 operators. Will always protect los Chapitos ! From Government or from Los Contras .
    Even AMLO knows that Chapos Dynasty is here for ever. That is why he went out of his way to greet El Señor's mom when he was in Sinaloa.

    I remember when Los Menores were betrayed by El Lic Damazo ,Although CJNG had nothing to do with it.It only took one call from El Señor Guzman and with a sinister voice he said " los sueltas o vamos por el JR ".
    He then said the words that scared the daylight out every CJNG " La Bebes O la Derramas"
    In less than 24 hours Chapitos was back in Sinaloa

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    1. Tell us something we don't know.

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  3. This is old news. There is no government cure for drugs and violence. People must stop on their own volition. It’s true that most of Mexico’s citizens are poor, but it’s also true that Mexico has the resources to effect the necessary changes. The problem is attitude. No pasa nada is Mexico’s response to almost every circumstance of life. It’s leaders are corrupt. What’s the response of it’s citizens? No pasa nada. It’s not the fault of the USA.

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    1. ".. There is no government cure for drugs and violence.."
      Your referring to the gluttonous consumption of drugs in the US right?
      The war on drugs exacerbates the corruption that is endemic in Mexico. The Americans enact their whack-a-mole, I mean Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and 60,000 deaths later mass consumption in US market has never been higher with said market inundated with drugs from Mexico.

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  4. There's rumors that peña nieto had been detain in Spain and there investigating a third party that was a secret. They're responsible for making operations against the cartel during epn presidency.

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  5. Money so good the cartel soldiers are not going to work in a factory.

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    1. From everything I read here the average sicario makes less than I would imagine a Mexican factory job to pay. But they get free drugd and the dream of one day becoming a plaza boss

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    2. Sicarios earn shit, but they prefer to feel like tough guys and earn almost the same as in the factory but with a sense of "power" until a bullet goes through their skull sadly.

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    3. how much are cartel soldiers making a month nowaday?

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    4. They don’t get paid a lot, a cousin of mine who works for familia Michoacán’s gets $300usd a month with free weed

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    5. @2:13 you are wrong! The money is not good as a soldier and you often don't get paid. Most (not all) would prefer working in the factory, but as a kid on the street how do you get a job in a factory. You hardly learn to read and write in your crime riddled school where the teacher was a rare sight.

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    6. Good read. I almost passed it up. I made a comment pretty much saying the same thing. Mexico has become corrupt to try and compete with U.S and Canadian living standards. What a shame, that mexicans must resort to crime rather than honest work to be able to buy what the average person in the U.S and Canada can buy. Something to think about. Again, good article.

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  6. Politicians won't save you. You have walked away from the Lord. You reap what you have sewn, turn back and be saved.

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  7. I dropped my dollars in a trash can and told someone else I did so He could pick them up. I begged then walked to retrieve them same dollars. Hug it out with gestures even if you can't get close in this time of covid. Padelante

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  8. Jeezo don't be stupid...America
    Gangs drugs and hitmen gangsters exist in the EE.UU

    Sell photos on the beach with a black & white burro rayado or hoist a muy macho cuernos? Sicarios would rather serve as hit men or halcones. Even if they make mil pesos diario. AMLO tried HUGS FOR SLUGS and it brought the highest death rate yet.

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  9. Without reading the article I’m sure it all comes down to corruption. The maxikans with their hand out as always and then double dipping by selling the info to cartels. It would be more effective to spend the billions at the border than to see it wash away among greedy bastards!

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  10. Just the money taken by crooked politicians, police & military in Mexico from the cartels could build and fund 100 colleges / new businesses (legal). The U.S. Government is very bad at "Nation Building" in 3rd World countries (re: Iraq, Lebanon, etc..).

    The U.S. can not save Mexico, Columbia or any other nation from imploding into chaos and would only make things worse. Nations that back drug smuggling and crooked leaders that take advantage of it has been happening for centuries (re: East India Company - Opium Wars in China). This will end in a bigger war before it ends and always does, not the failed "war on drugs" but a real war of some type (prob another proxy war like Nicaragua Contras).

    Grab a seat and hold on because this violence inside of Mexico is just the beginning of bigger things to come.

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  11. This article is real slap in the face to US tax payers. More "social programs"?! Mexico is NOT poor (..cough... LITHIUM... cough) !!! The US needs to admit they are unable to quit using drugs, legalize and allow PERSONAL PRODUCTION of any drug, then only enforce REAL CRIMES (intoxicated driving, ect). Throwing money is cheap.

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  12. Yea right that money would go straight into the pockets of EPN. Make better roads? So the cartel can have better routes to transports kilos of meth. At least we sell American vehicles to protect the Mexican cops and military.

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  13. Hit them in the wallet work smarter not harder.

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  14. Mexico clearly needs reform/a revolution. Those in power today will never want that and do everything to protect their position of privilege.

    The only way out of this swamp is that the cartels turn their guns on the corrupt elite and convert themselves into a people's revolution. Can't see that happening in the near future though.

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    1. Look to Zapata about your last suggestion. Didn't end well for him.

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    2. @7:34 yes, because Zapata the Mexican government (with US assistance) created the GAFE out of which the Zetas emerged.

      The corrupt Mexican elite will do ANYTHING to stay in power and unfortunately they got uncle Sam's support.

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  15. USA says, "hold my beer, Mexico. We can look more violent than you".
    Mexico is right to push away Americanization. You may be poor and violent but you appreciate a defined culture. In the USA we're now Balkanized with multiple camps that cannot be enjoined.
    If the cartels backed off people from the north would flood into beautiful Mexico.

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  16. Salt 5.56, 7.62, and 9 mm rounds with absolutely undetectable bogus rounds that will destroy a firearm when detonated. This would put some terror into micro brains of a sicario. Do I lose my face or my hand today?

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    1. I like this idea! Hard to pull off and hard to control who gets the "good" ammo. Nice idea though.

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  17. Not sure why my comment gets deleted for pointing out that infrastructure and social programs will do nothing. No business in their right mind will invest in a country that is lawless.

    Every major industry in MX is getting hurt by Cartels. Oil, mining, agriculture, logging, ect. That has nothing to do with the US and everything to do with the need to vote out polititians.

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  18. If it is not Mexico some other country with similar cultural values will step up and fill the void to supply the market in America with narcotics. Corruption and poverty are certainly an issue in all Third World countries but they are definitely not going to solve the worlds drug problem

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  19. Porque el hombre ha consumido drogas? antiguamente el peyote, los hongos, el pulque, La coca , era asomar a otra realidad, pero era para consumo de los señores de la autoridad.
    mas tarde la sociedad industrial en las cadenas de producción se reduce tanto el tiempo que los nervios revientan buscando alivio en una droga, algo que te lleve a la felicidad, es acaso esta la causa de tanta demanda de una sociedad con dinero pero infeliz?

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  20. Americans have always taken a "When in Rome, do as the romans do" approach to Mexico.

    If being involved in the contraband business and paying off government officials is what it takes to keep a bordering country unstable enhancing our security concerns that is what will be done.

    It's your own fault,
    there's been no lack of presence of Russians and the Chinese.....hell... even going back to the Nazi's doing the same thing.

    The "problem" in Mexico can be explained simply.

    If a man wanted to grow tomatoes in his yard to sell,
    support his family and become prosperous someone would steal them before they were ripe.

    The man knows this so he does'nt go to the bother.

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  21. The problem is right in front of your faces and a lot of you don't see it! There's an economic disparity between the U.S and Canada and Latin America. Who's to blame? Welp,I would put a lot of the blame on the U.S as a result of unfair trade agreements. Mexico produces a lot of American goods but despite these products being manufactured in Mexico, mexicans can not afford them. Why? Because these american companies refuse to pay these mexican workers U.S standard wages and they sell their products in mexico at American standard rates. How are mexicans suppose to buy a pair of mexican manufactured Levi's at 60 dollars a pair when they barely make 50 dollars a week at the Levi company? You want to know how? By joining a cartel, selling their bodies, exploiting indigenous children, illegal fishing, stealing or immigrating to the U.S where the minimum wage could be 10 times more than Mexico...

    it's a lot more complex than just the minimum wage, but raising the minimum wage to U.S and Canadian standards accross all of Latin America will help to circumvent some of the problems... One major obstacle though, the U.S will not allow it. Americans want cheap goods at the expense of Latin American countries. If Latin American companies can't deliver cheap labor than these American companies will take their business to overseas. So what do you do? Do you bend over for the U.S and let them economically rape you or do you stand up against these unfair trade agreements and possibly face the Cuba treatment. For those of you who still believe it's not the U.S's fault, are you starting to see it?

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  22. 9:24 thank you!!

    this right here.every bit of it. allowing PERSONAL PRODUCTION and consumption doesnt mean endorsing it, just very sanely means to hell with the criminalization model, also means to stop trying to be the control freak nation that we are becoming. sad truth is there is so much untraceable monies, key word untraceable, in illegal narcotics, and there are many in all levels of society that benefit from so called dirty/washed funds not just the obviously corrupted, this combined with the fact that a sizeable number of everyday people unfortunately( cant stress this word enough here 10x) seem to enjoy telling others how to live their lives and feel it is their right to punish those who dont do as they do. that alone is a huuuge hurdle most def bigger than a border wall and will take every individual to step up and take hard look in the mirror for that to change, correct me if im wrong the tube says... people should be afraid of their own shadow at the moment!? esp with this CoVoteI.D.-1984 fiasco taking on a rather nasty political hue, a predictable outcome if you've learned to expect the least from your fellow country men, i did not predict nor expect this to become what it is today. I wasnt suprised that certain power players in high places would want to pull this kind of stunt not their first attempted rodeo by a longshot but my shock is all from not seeing any real pushback from the citizenry.


    ?que hora es? uh oh i think its trivia time! /:0 ...come on BB readers and commenters dont fool around, yal kno what time it is. quick play.

    true? or false? --- "People are more likely to think clearly and make rational choices with regards to their situation when in a heightened state of fear?"

    a word of caution when taking what is said on the tv screen without a pinch of salt,ready for this... -whatever progrom being billed as news, need not necessarily be REAL let alone news-, for if we readily buy what ever reality they are selling us regardless of the above, to day after day place trust in someone off in tv land to tell us what time it really is like we cant go outside and figure it out for ourselves, in so doing who and what goals do ya think are bound to be accomplished?

    yours? mine? nameless faceless theirs? let us ponder our predicament while the news reminds us to block out our faces, stay at home, dissociate away from ourselves + each other... 2 week recomendations morph into indefinite orders of the state, reenforced by a frightenly unquestioning and obidient populace. is this the show we are watching?


    or have we had enough of the double speak newthink crap.. these corrupt phychopaths in high places be reminded that we are human beings and we are not gonna play this game. no violence, just a change in attitude and perception, a long overdue turning of the effin tide and a mass changing of the channel if ya will, in hopes that we may all come to realize a collective ah ha moment in affirming that the nightmare that a few envision for the many, never need come into being.

    Amen.

    thank you all for taking the time to know it is what time.

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  23. i think some of us may be playing a little fast and loose with the term 3rd world... for the record, Iraq, Lebanon, and Mexico may be politically, religously, culturally different from the United States but are by no means 3rd world. sure they all have their own unique problems just as any 1st world nation state does. point being made here is the land of present day Iraq is culturally very old but as a country and lines on the map is actually fairly young, think post WW1 and WW2, puts things a bit more in perspective to see how the idea of borders with kuwait and iran syria jordan wasnt exactly set in stone and instead still being duked out. now all that being said, if you lived in the cities chances are life looked pretty first world for many people, it didnt look so third worldish until USA went in there with who man? the humanimilitarian mission problemo operation oilpersian al-iraqi fubar prezid busha go na hafta problay dodgi soma shoes ha alah hakbad whos your bagdaddi?...my gf summed it up quite simple for me, she says its really just a conflict between the bush the rack, makes sense. i think i heard a couple others, 3rd world is places like papau new guinea or places is rural congo, somalia ethiopia other parts of africa and southern pacific islands off indonesia ect. just saying its dangerous to write off some of these middle eastern nations that we have been militarily recently engaged with as being some how third world making it slight of saying what was done to those people was justified. forgive me if i misread that, still something to keep in mind before using that as a blanket reason for x y and z issues.

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