The US must rethink its Latin American foreign policy, beginning with the drug war. Sponsoring a proxy war with drug cartels will only foster anti-American sentiment among the citizenry and the large profits of drug trafficking will continue drive public officials to corruption.
MEXICO CITY — In what could be one of Mexico’s worst cases of drug-related corruption in a decade, Mexican officials alleged that a drug cartel infiltrated the highest levels of Mexico’s attorney general’s office, paying people there as much as $450,000 a month to get sensitive information about antidrug activities.
Mexican Officials Allege Drug Cartel Infiltrated Attorney General’s Office – WSJ.com.
Is there hope for change? Drug Czar John Walters shows some signs of sanity.
Mr. Walters, a vehement opponent of drug legalization, backed a proposal by [Mexican President] Mr. Calderón not to prosecute people caught carrying relatively small amounts of illegal narcotics, including cocaine and heroin. Under Mr. Calderón’s plan, addicts would be treated differently from traffickers and would avoid jail if they agreed to undergo treatment, not unlike similar programs in some parts of the United States. “I don’t think that’s legalization,†Mr. Walters said.
Rice Visits Mexico for a Meeting About Its Drug War – NYTimes.com.
It’s a start. While the decriminalization of drugs is a baby step toward policy reform, it does nothing to address the profit motive that violent thugs have to traffic in illegal narcotics. A re-legalization of the bread-and-butter of narcotics traffickers, marijuana, would rip the financial rug out from under the gangsters that terrorize Mexico and the rest of Latin America. When American alcohol prohibition gave rise to gangsters like Al Capone and blood spilled on in our major cities we repealed the laws that caused the bloodbath. We should do the same for Mexico.
Unintended Consequences: Perhaps racist windbags like Lou Dobbs wouldn’t have some much “illegal” immigration to complain about if American foreign policy didn’t do so much damage to the Mexican economy. Mexicans have a right to keep their families safe from harm, just as Americans do.
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