U.S.-Mexico 'war on drugs' a failure By Charles Bowden, Special to CNN
molly
CNN.com
U.S.-Mexico 'war on drugs' a failure
By Charles Bowden, Special to CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Charles Bowden: 5,000 killed in Juarez in 27 months, one of most
violent cities on Earth
* Bowden: Innocents die in crossfire among cartels, army, police
* He says drug trade is a source of money for the Mexican economy
* Bowden: U.S. must face NAFTA's failures and the lethal results
of "war on drugs"
Editor's note: Charles Bowden is the author of 11 books, including
"Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family"; "Juárez: The
Laboratory of our Future"; "Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing" and
his latest, "Murder City," about Ciudad Juarez. He is a contributing
editor of Esquire and writes for newspapers and magazines such as
Harper's and The New York Times Book Review.
Tucson, Arizona (CNN) -- Last week during the day, some kids in Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico, were playing soccer in a park when a car slowed down,
guys got out and executed a 13-year-old boy. And then they drove away,
unmolested in a city with 11,000 army and police officers.
The Mexican government repeatedly states that 90 percent of the deaths
in the current drug war are of people who are dirty; that is,
criminals involved in the drug business. The killings of reporters and
of innocent women, men and children continually belie that statement.
The child was not a cartel member in disguise. Nor were the 15 high
school kids killed at a party in a small house in a poor barrio. Their
parents had made them hold the celebration of a sports victory at home
because it was too dangerous to be out in the city.
I went to Juarez in June of 1995 and never seem to escape the pull of
the place. The city then was controlled by Amado Carrillo Fuentes,
then the head of the Juarez cartel. Drug Enforcement Agency
intelligence told me he was raking in $250 million a week.
American factories were erupting out of the ground in the wake of the
passage of NAFTA. Huge districts of shacks made out of stolen pallets
and cardboard boxes were growing faster than the city could map. These
shacks were filled with people working full time in those American-
owned factories. Murders ran around 250 a year and sometimes the
cartel left bodies on the street wrapped in yellow ribbon. Carrillo
ran the city and yet his name never appeared in the newspapers nor was
mentioned on radio and television.
I thought I'd stumbled into hell.
Now the city is dying. About 5,000 people have been slaughtered in
Ciudad Juarez in 27 months. It is a destroyed city where 25 percent of
the houses are abandoned and 40 percent of the businesses have closed.
There were 2,600 murders last year and killings are going on at a
faster clip this year. At night, no one is on the streets.
I realize that I was a fool in 1995. I had not stumbled into hell.
That was the golden age.
But one constant remains: No matter how many die in Juarez, no matter
how low the pay in the American factories, the U.S. government insists
the War on Drugs is being won and that NAFTA is a big success.
The Mexican War on Drugs is not lost: it never seriously began. The
drug industry is an essential prop under a faltering Mexican economy
and has been so for more than 20 years, since the peso crisis of the
early 1980s. The money flows into the hands of countless government
officials, into the banking industry and into many investments in
Mexico.
More people die each day as the government of President Felipe
Calderon uses the Mexican army and the federal police to try to get
the illegal drug industry under control. Calderon was elected by a
razor-thin margin and followed the custom of Mexican presidents by
immediately making a show of force. But he badly underestimated the
power of the drug industry.
The profits are estimated by many analysts to be between $30 billion
and $50 billion a year, although it's notoriously difficult to track.
But it is not a piddling sum in a country where oil is the official
highest earner of foreign currency and supplies 40 percent of the
federal budget. But the oil is running out. Calderon has publicly
stated that the oil fields will be gone in 10 years or less.
The next big earner is human flesh, the millions of Mexicans who have
fled the economic doom of their nation and send more than $20 billion
a year home from the United States. But the recession and job losses
in the U.S. have cut into that source.
Tourism ranks third in legitimate sources of money for Mexico, but in
a nation where heads keep getting lopped off, tourism isn't thriving.
The illegal drug industry in Mexico employs hundreds of thousands of
people. No one knows the payroll, but certainly it includes many
people in the army, the 3,500 separate police forces and the
government from top to bottom.
It's difficult to make a living wage legitimately here. The pay
varies, but in Ciudad Juarez, one of the most violent cities on Earth,
the starting salary in the 400 foreign-owned factories, mainly
American, is about 40 bucks a week.
There are 500 to 900 street gangs. No one can live on the pay offered
by these factories. In a country with 50 percent of the population
living in poverty, the turnover in these plants runs from 100 to 200
percent a year. No one can live long in a gang -- but for a while, a
kid can live well and feel that his life is a dream of money and
power.
The U.S. approach to the killings in Mexico never looks at an economic
reason, just as the consequences of our free trade treaty (NAFTA) are
never brought up.
The effects wrought by NAFTA launched one of the largest human
migrations in the world as poor Mexicans fled collapsing industry and
agriculture. Border Patrol statistics show that the number of Mexicans
entering the U.S. illegally skyrocketed within two years of the
passage of NAFTA.
We also never question our four-decades-old War on Drugs, which has
produced cheaper drugs of higher quality at lower prices in thousands
of U.S. cities and towns. It has helped create one of the largest
prison populations in the world. If our drug policy were a ship, it
would be called the Titanic.
Anyone who questions the propaganda of the U.S. government on the
violence in Mexico, on our War on Drugs or on our free trade agreement
is told to come up with a solution, some silver bullet that instantly
slays the dragon. But our policies over the decades have created a
disaster, and it will take years to reverse the damage these acts of
government have inflicted.
The time to start is now. Let's address the true and lethal nature of
Mexico's war on drugs -- one we are in part bankrolling under the
Merida Initiative to the tune of half a billion dollars per year,
often tossed into the murderous hands of many in the Mexican army.
We need to have a public discussion of the obvious: Legalize drugs or
keep caging Americans for taking drugs -- unless of course they are
booze, tobacco or happy pills from the doctor -- and keep financing
the murders of Mexicans.
The first thing to do if we want to come clean about the slaughter in
Mexico is start smelling the coffee. We share a 1,900-mile border. We
share a history and people. At least 10 percent of the Mexican people
now live in the United States as economic or political fugitives.
Recently, the secretaries of State, Homeland Security and Defense flew
to Mexico City and promised the Mexican government we would continue
exactly the same polices as in the past. I have been told I should be
reasonable. I am. And I expect the same of my government. Building
prisons and lending support to a murderous war on drugs must stop, and
digging deep into the economics and politics behind the hellish state
of affairs must begin.
It's a testament to the Mexican people that no matter how hard life is
in Juarez, they seem to endure, raise families, smile and try to
create a better future. As a Mexican friend told me, "I love Juarez,
it is such a needy city."
It is poor and dangerous, a tapestry of one-story buildings. But once
you know Juarez it haunts you no matter how you try to flee.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Charles
Bowden.
Links referenced within this article
city
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Ciudad_Juarez
NAFTA
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/NAFTA
drug
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Illegal_Drugs
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/31/bowden.ciudad.juarez.cartels
© 2008 Cable News Network.
Susan
away the superficiality and clearly reveal the major factors and
policies that create and perpetuate the irrevocable loss and suffering
in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. His closing remarks are so true, and
call us all to the task of helping those who strive to protect the
goal of peace and the creation of a sustainable, children, youth, and
women friendly community.
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Frontera LIst" group.
> To post to this group, send email to molly...@gmail.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> frontera-lis...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/frontera-list?hl=en
>
> To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
>