Saturday, February 14, 2009

McCaffrey Backtracks

General Barry McCaffrey, speaking today in Washington: 
The possibilities of Mexico becoming a narco-state or a failed state are zero.
General Barry McCaffrey, writing last month in the Executive Intelligence Review
Mexico is on the edge of the abyss—it could become a narco-state in the coming decade.
I have no idea what could have provoke the change in tone --a valentine for Mexico?-- but I'd guess it might have something to do with the overheated nature of the debate on Mexico in recent weeks. Whatever the case, it is welcome. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the definition of "narco-state" varies.

(1) A state in which organized crime, funded by the drug trade, bribes cops and judges on a regular basis. Bad enough.

(2) A state controlled by organized crime.

My take is that warnings that Mexico was headed towards (1) turned into reports that Mexico had become (2).

But ... I could very easily be wrong.

pc said...

I think the definition of narco-state varies based solely on the rhetorical needs of the speaker in the moment in which he is speaking. Either option one or two could qualify, and I agree that Mexico is headed toward or already has landed in option 1 and people made too much of it, but a lack of semantic rigor on the labels for Mexico is a consistent problem. With such an amorphous label as narco state, the author has an obligation to define it. I imagine, like I said in the post, that McCaffrey meant to open some eyes about Mexico, but was a little bit unsettled by people lumping his comments in with the rest of the comments that Mexico is failing.