{"id":11412,"date":"2011-09-05T11:24:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=11412"},"modified":"2011-09-05T12:00:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-05T20:00:34","slug":"us-rejects-drug-legalization-insists-on-escalating-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/05\/us-rejects-drug-legalization-insists-on-escalating-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"US Rejects Drug Legalization, Insists on Escalating Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent uptick in drug-related violence in Mexico<\/a>\u00a0has been met with the predictable sledgehammer-like martial responses<\/a> and pledges of harsh crackdowns by Washington. President Obama said<\/a> the “United States is and will remain a partner in this fight” against drug gangs, and “we are committed to continuing our unprecedented cooperation in confronting these criminal organizations.” At least one part of that unprecedented confrontation is the Merida Initiative, which pushes military-style responses<\/a> to the drug war. We’ve seen this play out in the latest response to the casino arson that killed over 50 people, with Mexico sending in 3,000 heavily armed federal officers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike Riggs at Reason<\/em> has been on this like no one else. He recently\u00a0blogged<\/a> about the counterproductive measures that have been taken, which have in part resulted in 25,000-40,000 people killed since 2006.<\/p>\n

Mexican President Felipe Calder\u00f3n\u00a0<\/em>called the Zeta cartel members who started the fire \u201ctrue terrorists who have gone beyond all limits.\u201d Yet having already\u00a0destroyed nearly $13 billion in cartel \u201cassets,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which in a saner world we would call \u201cexports\u201d and not destroy; and captured and\/or killed two-thirds of Mexico\u2019s most-wanted list, it seems like there\u2019s not much else Calderon and his handlers in the U.S. can do: Keep burning them drugs, keep arresting them baddies, and pray–in the words of Obama-nominated DEA Chief Michele Leonhart<\/a>–that the \u201ccaged animals\u201d keep \u201cattacking one another.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then points to a remarkable statement<\/a> by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, that the Americans “should look for market alternatives that annul the stratospheric profits of the criminals” instead of simply escalating the war on drugs so that another 40,000 people can be killed (and black market profits can rise ever higher). Calderon elsewhere hinted at support for drug legalization as a way to mitigate the violence, saying he is “completely open to this debate. Not just on consumption, but also on movement and production.” One problem: the regional hegemon who prefers a military solution to everything<\/a> will not consider such a sensible alternative policy solution. Riggs:<\/p>\n

…as the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0notes, \u201cResistance is firmly entrenched in the U.S. government and analysts say Mexico is very unlikely to liberalize its drug laws without Washington’s approval.\u201d\u00a0Perhaps anticipating that Calder\u00f3n\u00a0would go soft, a high level State Department functionary\u00a0insisted last month<\/a>\u00a0that the anti-cartel Merida Initiative would continue regardless of who Mexicans elected president in 2012. Hopefully Calder\u00f3n\u00a0grows a conscience and a spine between now and then.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update: <\/strong>See Ted Galen Carpenter on the misguided suggestion<\/a> that Mexico receive a Colombia<\/a> treatment<\/a> from the US, apparently because of its…successes. Also, Glenn Greenwald’s piece for the Cato Institute<\/a> on how improved a legalized system could get is always a good go-to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent uptick in drug-related violence in Mexico\u00a0has been met with the predictable sledgehammer-like martial responses and pledges of harsh crackdowns by Washington. President Obama said the “United States is and will remain a partner in this fight” against drug gangs, and “we are committed to continuing our unprecedented cooperation in confronting these criminal organizations.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,425],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-drgu-war","tag-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11415,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions\/11415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11412"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}