The War on Drugs: A New Approach for the U.S. and Mexico

By Rhiannon Kucharski

Background

The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 led to explosive growth in trans-border commercial activity between Mexico and the U.S. However,the dramatic increase in the flow of trucks, cars, boats and people across the border has also provided greater opportunities for drug traffickers. Today, Mexican drug cartels are the primary suppliers of most narcotics, especially Colombian cocaine, for the U.S. market.

The focus of U.S. drug policy on interdiction has meant constant pressure from the U.S. government on the Mexican government to fight organized crime and capture illicit drug shipments. The Mexican government has consistently cooperated by spending more than 50 percent of the law enforcements PGR budget and more than 33 percent of the defence budget on anti-drug policies. However, these expenditures take away from the prosecution of non-drug and arms-related crimes as well as from other federal social and development programs.

Mexico and the U.S. would benefit if they worked together to redefine the war on drugs and negotiate mutual goals and strategies. This will lower tensions,foster cooperation and lead to effective strategies in both countries. The new approach should be two-pronged, with one prong to treat the symptoms of drug trafficking and another to address the source of the problem.

Mexico

First, Mexico must address corruption by creating internal police monitoring. Some calculations estimate that up to $500 million in bribes are paid every year to Mexican officials, including law enforcement agents at all levels. The U.S. could help Mexico design an internal affairs department which would prosecute corrupt officers.

Mexico must also continue to improve the rule of law and the judicial system. In 1996, the Mexican justice system only processed 2.36 percent of reported crimes and from 1996-2000, only 14.4 percent of arrest warrants issued at the state level were executed.

The Mexican judicial system can be improved by fostering inter-agency cooperation so local, state and federal law enforcement agencies can enforce laws and conduct collaborative investigations. This will assist overwhelmed law enforcement agencies and lead to higher costs for traffickers. A higher risk of arrest and prosecution will create disincentives to join organized crime and partake in trafficking. The U.S. can contribute by continuing to offer assistance to Mexico through joint training exercises and intelligence sharing.

Second, the new strategy will also have to address the source of organized crime, drug trafficking and the primary causes of drug abuse. To determine the best strategy, it is important to consider what factors lead people to participate in crime and violence.

A study by Mark A. Cohen of Vanderbilt University and Mauricio Rubio of the Universidad Externado de Colombia found that organized crime groups monopolize extreme violence among young people in Latin America. Common root causes of organized crime and gang membership include: 1) marginalization, 2) high levels of youth unemployment, 3) little access to education, 4) overwhelmed and ineffective justice systems, 5) easy access to arms and an illicit economy, 6) high levels of domestic violence and 7) dysfunctional families.

Economist Pablo Fajnzylber also found a causal link between income inequality (GINI index), GDP and violent crime within and across countries. In fact, one of Mexico’s poorest states, Guerrero, had the country’s highest crime index at 64.9 per 100,000 people from 1996 to 2000.

Mexico should therefore focus on economic and social development by targeting areas with high levels of crime and violence as well as marginalized and impoverished sectors.

The Mexican government has also been addressing inadequate access to education. It has made a serious effort to improve educational possibilities for children through the Oportunidades program (formerly Progresa).

This program has improved school attendance as well as child nutrition and health. However, it should be expanded to include all children in poor and marginalized areas while also improving teacher and curriculum quality. A better education gives children more career options and reduces the attraction of criminal activity and gang membership.

The United States

At the same time, the U.S. needs to do more to reduce its demand for illegal drugs. According to the 2007 UN World Drug Report, the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of cocaine. Approximately 88 percent of the cocaine for the U.S. market transits the Central American/Mexican corridor.

There should be an improved effort to educate society about drugs and the repercussions of drug use,while focusing on rehabilitation for chronic drug abusers.

The U.S. also needs to focus more attention on preventing the flow of illegal arms from the U.S. to Mexico. This would make it more difficult for criminal groups to access weapons, thus reducing gun-related violence, including homicides. There were between 2,000 and 2,500 drug related homicides in Mexico in 2006 alone.

Conclusion

This comprehensive war on drugs strategy will not provide an immediate solution to the problems of organized crime, but it could lead to a significant reduction in drug trafficking in North America.

Rhiannon Kucharski served as an HCP Project Manager. Ms. Kucharski is a graduate student at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California San Diego and earned her BA in Spanish at the University of Oklahoma. Her Op-Ed on the War on Drugs first appeared in the April issue of Pueblo Hispano.