The US position on drug trafficking in Mexico, without filters
In a twist that no one (or perhaps everyone) expected, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, came out to clarify things with the delicacy of an elephant in a china shop. Basically, he said that The United States does not have any plans to invade Mexico with its troops to fight the drug cartels. Wow, what a relief, right? But, immediately afterwards, he dropped the bomb: there are entire areas of our beloved Mexico that, according to him, are “controlled” by drug traffickers, a force that he describes as “more powerful than local and even national law enforcement forces.” In other words, he gave us the typical ‘I’m not going to get involved, but your house is a mess.’ Thanks, man.
All this happened at Hamilton International Airport, in Canada, where the leaders of the G7 met to, I suppose, solve the world’s problems over canapés. There, they asked him about the murder of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Alberto Manzo, a crime that occurred on November 1, in the midst of the Day of the Dead celebration. Because, of course, the cartels do not respect even the most mixed traditions. Rubio’s response was a classic manual of American diplomacy: “We are willing to give them all the help they need. Obviously, they do not want us to take action, we are not going to take unilateral measures or send US forces to Mexico.” Translation: ‘We’re not going to be the bad guys… for now.’ But then he added the fine print: they can help with equipment, training, and intelligence sharing, as long as Mexico asks for it. In other words, the classic ‘if you need something, tell me, but I’m not going to guess your mind’.
The rhetoric of the ‘war on drugs’ intensifies
Rubio did not bite his tongue and defended the designation of the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a label imposed by President Donald Trump. According to him, the fact that these groups do not have an ideological motivation does not exempt them from being terrorists. “You don’t have to be ideological to be a terrorist,” he declared, in a tone reminiscent of those philosophical debates you have at 3 in the morning after too many tacos. And he concluded that the cartels have “more weapons, better training, better intelligence and more capabilities than nation states.” Basically, he painted a post-apocalyptic scenario where drug traffickers are the new bosses of the world. Is anyone else thinking of ‘Mad Max’ but with narcocorridos in the background?
To give more drama to his story, he cited the case of Ecuador, where the cartels “threaten the Ecuadorian State.” And, returning to Mexico, he insisted that “there are areas of the country that, frankly, are controlled by these cartels.” That is, according to this logic, we could have ‘narco-states’ within the country, a concept that sounds more like a new season of a Netflix series than reality. But, hey, who are we to question.
He called cartels “the most serious endemic problem in the region,” and upped the ante by calling them not just criminal organizations, but terrorist organizations that “threaten the viability and capabilities of nation states.” Sounds serious, right? As if we were one step away from this becoming the next plot of an action movie.
Bilateral cooperation: a ray of hope or pure rhetoric?
But not everything is pessimism and doomscrolling in this story. Rubio also highlighted that the level of cooperation between the United States and Mexico is “the highest in history,” and that it is growing. He said they have a “great relationship” and have made “incredible progress” in the first 10 months of the year. Among those achievements, he mentioned that extraditions are being done “faster than ever.” In other words, it seems that something is moving, although he acknowledged that it is a long-standing problem and that “it will take time to see tangible progress.” In other words, don’t expect a happy ending tomorrow.
In summary, Rubio’s message was a mix of ‘we are here to help, but we are not going to invade’ and ‘the situation is ugly, but we are collaborating.’ A diplomatic dance that leaves more questions than answers. Will this cooperation really be enough to stop the power of the cartels? Or is it just another chapter in the endless war against drug trafficking?
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