Questioning the Viability of a Narco Pact

Miguel Carbonell doesn't think a pact with the drug trade could work:

There is where it gets very complicated to follow Sicilia [and his proposal to forge a peace pact with the capos]. I don't see how or in what way the Mexico state could pact an end to the violence. Would all the big capos have to be seated around a table and sign a sort of contract or agreement of good faith? Who would participate: el Chapo, el Mayo, el Lazca? Their representatives, their chief hit men? Would the agreement take into account the bands of kidnappers and those who charge extortion in many cities in the North of the country?

There is no doubt that the President Calderón deserves to be questioned for the scale of violence in recent years and that we must always have the wisdom to change direction when the one we are on is not taking us to desirable results, but the idea that the state pact with criminals seems to me an unacceptable capitulation.

How do you explain it to the victims of their crimes? How would those who have seen their children kidnapped feel when they see the secretary of public security at the table with the chief of a band or a dangerous hit man? Is that the image we want to project about the future of the country?

And beyond the unseemliness of it, how is it workable? More on that topic from me, here.