Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jan 2016
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2016 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n032/a01.html
Author: Laura Carlsen

THE DRUG WAR AND MEXICO

To the Editor:

Re "Mexico's New Blood Politics" (Sunday Review, Jan. 17):

Ioan Grillo's conclusion that the United States (and American 
taxpayers) "should use its drug-war aid to push harder" for 
anti-corruption and judicial reforms is off base.

As a political analyst living and working in Mexico for the last 
three decades, I have watched with horror how the United 
States-Mexico drug war strategy has led to the explosion of violence 
and criminal activity here. The deep-rooted complicity between 
government officials and security forces on the one hand and cartels 
on the other means that the training, equipment and firepower given 
in aid and sold to the Mexican government fuel violence on both sides.

The lines blur. The cartels are not fighting the state for political 
power; they are seeking to protect a $40 billion drug-trafficking 
business that has been converted into a war for control of territory, 
a war against the people.

Victim organizations that have organized throughout the country 
demand that the United States stop funding the drug war under any 
guise. They are the ones who have lost the most, and have the most at 
stake. We should finally listen to them.

LAURA CARLSEN

Director, Americas Program

Center for International Policy

Mexico City
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom