The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration heralded the arrest of Berraza Villa and one of his associates as glowing proof of "the leadership and resolve of President Calderon and the Government of Mexico."
Perhaps, but the rapid, stealthy rise of La Familia is also proof that even if there is the will, there may not be a way. The war on drugs is failing.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Family in WPR
Malcolm Beith has a piece on the rise of La Familia and how it took Mexican officials by surprise on WPR. Beith also had a good one on the same topic for The News last year if I remember correctly, but it's nowhere to be found on the paper's website. No good drug story would be complete without an overstatement from the DEA. Here's this article's, with Beith's response:
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2 comments:
I think I may have made a similar comment before but....
It seems to me that the so-called war on drugs works on the premise that there are few (or maybe a few more than a few) bad guys out there who are apart from ordinary society. Therefore if these guys can be rounded up, the war can be won
(This reminds me of the story of George Bush who had a list of the top 100 or however many of al-Qaida in his desk and went around crossing them off when they were arrested or killed. He completely failed to understand the context from which al-Qaida could emerge.)
This premise ignores that fact that the members of La Familia are embedded in their society. When I have been in Uruapan and talked with friends there, it seems everyone knows someone (a cousin or an acquaintance who is involved in some way with the narcos)
And then there is the whole otherargument about tackling the demand side of this issue
Yeah the 500,000 Mexicans who make their living off the drug trade can't all be killed or arrested. If the government takes down the Family, I mean arrests ALL their leaders, the guts of the group will just regroup under another name. Michoacan will still be a valuable route from the Pacific coast to Mexico City, so someone else will certainly fill the void.
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