In the last few weeks:
* Nearly six tons of cocaine were seized from a homemade submarine in waters off of Oaxaca.
* More than 20 people were killed in the span of a week in the city of Culiacán.
* A high-ranking member of the federal police force was murdered during lunch at a restaurant in Mexico City.
What is going on in Mexico?
Ever since Mexican president Felipe Calderón initiated a federal crackdown on drug trafficking in 2007, violence has continued to escalate. The crackdown has resulted in the arrest of some high-level figures in the drug trade, but as cartels are dismantled or left without leaders, violent power struggles erupt over who will take their place.
The U.S. Congress recently approved a $400 million drug war aid package for Mexico for 2008-2009, the first piece of a three-year funding proposal by the Bush administration known as the Mérida Initiative. This assistance will take the form of support for enforcement and interdiction efforts -- a model that has already failed spectacularly with billions of dollars spent on Plan Colombia.
DPA warned against the folly of a Plan Colombia-style approach when the Mérida initiative was first proposed by the Bush administration last fall. This spring, political leaders and influential thinkers on drug policy came together in Mexico to look for a better way.
The International Forum on Illicit Drugs, a two-day conference on alternatives to the Mérida initiative, took place in April in Culiacán, a city that has long been plagued by violence related to the illegal drug trade. Conference participants ranged from local political figures and experts to international drug policy figures, including DPA executive director Ethan Nadelmann. Attendees recommended that Mexico move away from the prohibition model of dealing with drugs, discussing the Netherlands as a model and calling for decriminalization of marijuana as a starting point for change.
Detailed coverage can be found in the Drug War Chronicle.
Since the conference took place, Culiacán has made headlines repeatedly for eruptions of violence, including the killings of more than 20 people in one week in July. The continued escalation of drug trade-related violence affirms that supply-side efforts will not work. U.S. funding could instead be put towards expanded treatment access in the U.S., the primary consumer of Latin America's cocaine. A RAND Corporation study showed treatment to be dramatically more effective at reducing cocaine abuse than interdiction.
Reducing demand for drugs coming from Mexico would lower their price -- meaning lower profit margins and less power for cartels.
As Ethan Nadelmann said
in the San Francisco Chronicle last fall, "Until policymakers start rethinking failed drug-war policies, the violence and corruption inherent in prohibition will continue."
