{"id":17484,"date":"2012-12-18T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=17484"},"modified":"2012-12-18T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T20:00:31","slug":"mexican-govt-slams-us-backed-military-approach-to-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/18\/mexican-govt-slams-us-backed-military-approach-to-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Gov’t Slams US-Backed Military Approach to Drug War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although no one seems to be able to initiate a change, there is widespread acknowledgement that US-backed drug war policies in Mexico have worsened the security situation, enabled human rights abuses by the government, and has not put a dent in the drug market. Washington Post<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A top official in Mexico\u2019s new government on Monday harshly criticized the country\u2019s U.S.-backed attack on drug cartel leaders for causing violence to surge, even as the incoming team offered an alternate security strategy largely devoid of details.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong opened a meeting of the National Security Council saying that under the strategy of former President Felipe Calderon, who left office Dec. 1, \u201cfinancial resources dedicated to security have more than doubled but unfortunately crime has increased.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Calderon\u2019s policy to deploy Mexican troops and federal police officers \u2013 forces that are\u00a0trained by the United States<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 only increased the violence, which has left more than 50,000 dead since about 2006.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGeorge W. Bush backed Calder\u00f3n\u2019s militarization with a $1.8 billion package of helicopters, police training, and intelligence cooperation,\u201d\u00a0wrote\u00a0The New Yorker\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Steve Coll recently<\/a>. \u201cObama has continued the program\u201d and \u201chas reportedly sent drones to help Mexico track cartel leaders and traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch back in November of last year\u00a0released a report<\/a>\u00a0providing evidence that Mexico\u2019s security forces participated in \u201cmore than 170 cases of torture, 39 \u2018disappearances,\u2019 and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calder\u00f3n took office in December 2006.\u201d And these are just what they could confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of reducing violence, Mexico\u2019s \u2018war on drugs\u2019 has resulted in a dramatic increase in killings, torture, and other appalling abuses by security forces, which only make the climate of lawlessness and fear worse in many parts of the country,\u201d said\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco of\u00a0Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

Despite the open criticisms, it seems unlikely that the new Mexican government will succeed in significantly altering the status quo.<\/p>\n

The United States has been\u00a0pushing a militaristic approach to the drug war<\/a>\u00a0for a long time. Other countries – \u00a0Colombia<\/a>,\u00a0Guatemala<\/a>, Honduras<\/a>, etc.\u00a0–\u00a0are suffering from a similar dilemma thanks to US pressure and the refusal to budge on a failed policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although no one seems to be able to initiate a change, there is widespread acknowledgement that US-backed drug war policies in Mexico have worsened the security situation, enabled human rights abuses by the government, and has not put a dent in the drug market. Washington Post: A top official in Mexico\u2019s new government on Monday […]<\/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":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-17484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"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\/17484","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=17484"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17489,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17484\/revisions\/17489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17484"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}