"As I see it, president Calderon naively thought that putting
the army and federal police forces patrolling the streets will reduced some of
the violence or intimidate the drug cartels, clearly that hasn’t been the case,
so why does he continues to insist to deploy more soldiers and federal police
officers?"
When president Calderon launched the so called “War against
the organize crime” few days after he took office back on December 2006, he
promised that he would bring back peace and security to the country. During
little more then three years since the army and federal polices forces were
deployed to the hot spots where the drug cartels operates, Mexico have witness
how the violence have been rapidly increasing, and the society has began
questioning the effectiveness of the government strategy.
The most recent violent events that have taken place in
Ciudad Juarez, considered to be one of the most violent city in the country;
the indiscriminate murdered of 15 high school student, while they were in a
party and three people linked to the U.S consulate office in that border city,
both in hands of drug cartel hit-man, have made the Mexican government leave
the state of lethargy that they were immerse ever since they launched this war,
and now they are seeing the huge and difficult situation they have in their
hands.
In the other hand, the U.S. government few months back
praised and applauded to Felipe Calderon’s actions by saying that strategy was
the correct one, and which I strongly criticized back then, questioning that
Washington perception of this war seen from the other side of the border is
completely different from those who daily witness a shootout and see a group of
bodies mutilated, beheaded or hanging from a bridges, or simply they are just
pure spectators as if they were watching an action film. And now less then a
year and after a U.S government employee was killed in the streets of Ciudad
Juarez, Barack Obama’s administration is beginning to get worried about the
increasing violence and they are starting to question Mexico’s drug war
strategy.
Few months back I exposed, on this blog and on France 24, that president Calderon
rushed to launched this war without a well trace strategy and most of all, he
and his advisers didn’t foresee the consequences that this could bring. I also
pointed out that the main purpose of this war were more for political reasons
rather then fighting seriously the drug cartels. In other words, he use this so
call war to legitimize his presidency once and for all, and to improved his
approval rate after the controversial and uncertain 2006 presidential election
results, in which the left wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused
Calderon and his party to have committed fraud.
As I see it, president Calderon naively thought that putting
the army and federal police forces patrolling the streets will reduced some of
the violence or intimidate the drug cartels, clearly that hasn’t been the case,
so why does he continues to insist in deploying more soldiers and federal
police officers? I don’t have any doubt that the Mexican army have had some
victories, such as the killing of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a drug lords and
arresting members of drug cartels, but it doesn’t mean that these powerful
criminal organization are weaken or are in risk of disappearing, their just
small wounds. These criminal organizations are like plants, if we pull off a
branch or a leaf, in a couple of days it will grow back, but if we cut off the
roots of the plant then we would be killing it. That is exactly what Calderon’s
“strategy” is doing, just pulling off branches, but not cutting off the roots,
which in this case is the money, that maintains operating these powerful
criminal organization.
I strongly believe that this war will not be won with the
army on the streets doing shootouts, killing drug lords and arresting members
of drug cartels. And while they continue to patrol the streets, the drug gangs
will target civilians just to discredit the armed forces. These war has to be
fought in different fronts, but with low profile and base on intelligence, but
most importantly the Mexican State has to go after the money, if they are really
compromise to fight and jeopardize the drug gangs. It all depends on the
willingness of President Calderon to accept that his initial strategy has
failed and start to redesign a new strategy, if he wants to succeed.
Copyright 2010 © EquisY: Los ejes de la información
drug war, Mexico, Felipe Calderon, Barack Obama, Ciudad Juarez, durg cartels, Arturo Beltran Leyva, France 24, violence, killings, shootouts, U.S.A, equisy
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