While the US has become a central focus during the coronavirus pandemic due to leading the world in number of cases and casualties, America’s southern neighbor is also struggling. Similar to the initial American response, Mexico is holding off on testing for COVID-19.

Leading the World in Cases, but Not Testing

In fact, the Mexican state averages one test per 100,000 people, according to John Hopkins University. That number pales in comparison to the US – which is hardly the gold standard – which has a testing rate of 168 per 100,000, as the Guardian reported.

As the world approaches the six-month anniversary of the global pandemic, testing supplies are not exactly elusive as manufacturers have risen to the occasion. Mexico’s refusal to embrace widespread testing is the result of the miserly fiscal policies of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to as “Amlo.”

Saving Money at the Expense of Public Health

Amlo himself was only tested before he journeyed to Washington for a meeting with American President Donald Trump. Various members of his cabinet and other top Mexican officials have contracted the disease. On Sunday, it was announced that Mexico’s Dr. Jesus Grajeda, health minister for Chihuahua, died after a two-week battle against COVID-19, as Reuters reported.

Mexico ranks sixth in the world for number of cases, boasting 390,516 as of Monday morning, according to data compiled by Worldometers. In terms of fatalities, it is No. 4 with 43,680 behind only the US, Brazil, and the UK.

Amlo Refuses to Change Course

Yet despite these facts that suggest Amlo’s approach is not working, the Mexican leader maintains course.

“The WHO has said ‘test, test, test’ – but not even healthcare workers have access to tests,” said Rafael Soto, a nurse and spokesman for medical personnel protesting for healthcare improvements. “Many co-workers have died without ever having been tested.”

A lack of testing appears to be a decision made with the sole intention of reducing the government’s expenditures.

“It’s a strategy based on the idea of maximum savings – and it’s not producing results,” said Malaquías López-Cervantes, a public health professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). 

Amlo’s Penny-Pinching Record

In truth, Amlo’s eccentric fiscal policies were his hallmark long before he assumed office. Now, in the time of COVID-19, Amlo’s stubbornness to loosen the state’s purse strings has contributed to dismal testing rates and minimal economic relief, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.

“His entire political career he has spoken out against [economic bailouts],” said Genaro Lozano, a political scientist at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. “One of the reasons he got to the presidency had to do with the fact that people were very angry about the use of public money for frivolities.”

Although a liberal politician, Amlo’s monetary ideals are decidedly conservative. During his presidential campaign, he argued “you can’t have a rich government and a poor people.”

To that end, Amlo walks his talk; when he cut government spending, he reduced his own salary by 60%, the Guardian reported. Some of those budget cuts came at the expensive of the state’s healthcare system, a decision that appears questionable in hindsight.

Amlo is Self-Sabotaging His Presidency

Furthermore, Amlo’s political future will likely be determined this year and may very well already be set in stone. Amlo is only halfway through the second year of a 6-year term, but his economic policies have eaten away his approval ratings.

Since taking office, Amlo’s approval rating has slid from 83% to 56% in June, the Yucatan Times reported. The negative economic effects of Amlo’s fiscal policies have begun to catch up with his ratings, particularly as the Mexican economy shed 700,000 in April and May, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Mexican economy is down 10.5% for the year, the International Monetary Fund reported, contributing to Amlo’s 63% economic disapproval rating, according to Bloomberg.

Amlo continues to refuse to design an economic stimulus, not to save his polling numbers nor to rescue the Mexican economy. The maximum he is wiling to do is to transfer $25.6 billion from other areas of the government for social programs and infrastructure projects, according to Reuters. However, this will cause other aspects of Mexico City to suffer as Peter is robbed to pay Paul.

Leading Mexican Official: Testing is a ‘Waste of Time’

The central bank did announce a $31 billion stimulus, however the action will primarily help stabilise the financial system, not the unemployed Mexican worker. It is not enough to undo the damage from COVID-19 and two years of Amlo’s heavy spending cuts. 

Until COVID-19 is cured or suffocated out of existence through social distancing, lockdowns, and masks, the Mexican economy will continue to crumble as will Amlo’s presidency. Gangs and cartels have also capitalized on the economic downturn, putting Mexico on course for its most violent year ever, BBC News reported.

Corruption and crime coincide with the COVID-19 crisis, and amid it all, Amlo’s coronavirus tsar, Hugo López-Gatell called testing “a waste of time, effort and resources.”

Mexico City was in disrepair when Amlo assumed office and although he may have honest morals, his economic policies have gutted any hope of Mexico bettering itself in the near future. For Amlo, the leader who promised the creation of two million jobs somehow without government spending, any spending from the public coffers is inherently evil. Fighting a pandemic with that mentality is next to impossible.

L'articolo Amlo’s Penny-Pinching Policies Are Plunging Mexico Into Ruin proviene da InsideOver.

Drug wars in Mexico are as conventional as sombreros and Burritos. For decades, cartels have been fighting for territory and power – while the government has acted as an inept bystander. The current president López Obrador has pledged a paradigm shift in the cartel wars. In lieu of fighting them, he is conducting an appeasement policy – with fatal consequences even beyond Mexico’s borders.

The Cartels Aren’t Interested in Compromise

It is a one-sided peace mission President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is undertaking. His credo, “abrazos, no balazos”, meaning hugs not bullets, could be mistaken for a comedy show script. It sounds simply too naïve to be official policy. Nevertheless, it is the reality in Mexico these days, a country that never managed to get the cartel wars under control nor the violence that makes Mexico one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Unsurprisingly, the first 19 months of Obrador’s presidency have been a fiasco, a farce. Example? The government recently released the son of drug kingpin “El Chapo”. Not due to lack of evidence but due to the Sinaloa Cartel. Once the arrest occurred, the cartel appeared in armoured vehicles in the city, committed arson and engaged in shootings with the authorities. Not unusual for Mexico: it was the authorities who had to retreat.

The message was sent: release Guzman’s son or all hell will break loose. The government succumbed to the cartel’s demands, and Ovidio Guzman walked out of jail the very same day. The government’s excuse? Guzman’s release was made to avoid an escalation of violence in order to protect the population. Translation: The Mexican government does not have the power, nor the reputation for applying any form of pressure onto the cartels. The executive branch is a government branch in name only.

Appeasement Doesn’t Work

It fits in with the president’s appeasement approach, which he has been pursuing with regard to the cartels since taking office: leave the cartels alone to end the violence, carte blanche in the middle of a war. The issue with the “abrazos, no balazos” approach is that the violence has not decreased but exacerbated. Homicides have not disappeared but are at a record high.

In the period from January to April, it was, according to official information, a record 11,535, after 11,266 in the same period last year. For López Obrador, who had sharply criticized his predecessor for the high number of murders during the election campaign, his first year in office was the bloodiest in recent Mexican history: in 2019, a total of 34,582 people died a violent death. The majority of these murders are related to drug crime in the country. An end does not seem to be near. Since the extradition of El Chapo into the US, the resulting power vacuum has been attempted to be filled by several cartels and gangs.

However, the violence of the cartels also affects many people outside the crime syndicates. These included assassinations of police chiefs, murders of a federal judge and his wife or the massacre in a rehab clinic in which 24 people were murdered only recently.

Obrador’s Popularity is Still High in Mexico

Obrador’s popularity remains high despite his apparent incompetence. His approval ratings are usually between 50 and 68.4 per cent, primarily as his government has invested heavily in the reduction of poverty and simplified access to loans for agriculture. With the fight against economic inequality, the president seeks to remove the breeding ground for organized crime, but he seems to ignore that the cartels are long-established criminal enterprises, financially bigger than Walmart. Shortage of new prodigies due to slightly more pesos in one’s pocket hence seems inconceivable.

Instead, he continues to endanger the country with his appeasement policy as the long-term effects are highly likely an overwhelming increase in crime of all kinds and security organs that are unable to curb the violence of the cartels as these are currently able to operate at will.

Obrador’s policies also ignore the fact that the Mexican drug trade is a global problem. As a producer and middleman, the country supplies the majority of the heroin and cocaine consumed in the United States, of up to 90 per cent. Moreover, the ongoing drug war is forcing hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to migrate to the United States – with dramatic political and humanitarian consequences.

L'articolo Mexico’s Appeasement Policies Against the Cartels proviene da InsideOver.

Child soldiers fighting the drug cartels in native Mexican communities. Read the full report here

L'articolo Withstanding drug cartels proviene da InsideOver.

Acapulco is a true tourist paradise. But today armed units patrol the city and murders are a daily occurrence. Read the full report here

L'articolo Acapulco, hell in paradise proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Society 10.05.2020

Child Soldiers in the Fight Against Drug Gangs

In the heart of the Guerrero mountains, the Rincon De Chautla village – a handful of houses lived by Nahuatl people – is being threatened by a criminal gang, Los Ardillos.After attempting to ally with the community police, Los Ardillos…

Alfredo Bosco

Before children, women – the wives and sisters of men killed by Los Ardillos – had decided to take up arms, causing the Guerrero government great concern as they are totally unable to confront this tragedy. The response came in the form of a check point near the village, however the soldiers are too few should they be attacked by well-equipped gangs.
In Guerrero the community police forces are tolerated despite being illegal. Those living in the more remote villages will not accept being left without protection against criminal groups such as Los Ardillos in the Chilapa area, Los Rojos of Chilpancingo, the Guerrero Unidos, the Tequileros, not to mention the more powerful cartels such as that of Sinaloa and the  Familia Michoacan.

The internal war which makes Guerrero one of the most dangerous territories in the whole of Mexico stems from the opium poppy market. The districts of Centro, Tierra Caliente and Montaña are the money producing areas of the Mexican cartels. In 2018 alone the army eradicated 84,000 square metres of cultivated lands despite the fact the market was stalling. Another sore point are the gold mines, also in the mountainous areas, and which immediately become the target of criminal gangs. Taking control of the streets and occupying villages is a way for gangs to consolidate their power and the reason behind their threats to villagers. If they are not willing to give up or leave, war breaks out and daily violence the norm.

L'articolo Child Soldiers in the Fight Against Drug Gangs proviene da InsideOver.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life for nearly everyone, drug cartels included. A recent Foreign Policy report chronicled their plight as they face supply shortages and lower demand. While under normal circumstances a downturn in illicit drug markets would be welcome news, the crisis and desperation have driven drug lords to more extreme measures, resulting in a sharp uptick in violence in several states.

In Mexico, authorities reported 2,500 homicides in March, the state’s highest since record keeping began in 1997. Brazil has also experienced a rise in murders. Whereas it had previously experienced three years of decreases, coronavirus-related drug squabbles saw the tide turn upward 10%. In one Brazilian state, Ceará, the rate nearly doubled in 10 days during March.

The story is the same in El Salvador where a pre-virus decline was reversed due to increased gang violence, which led President Nayib Bukele to permit police to use lethal force.

Difficulties Abound

Challenges facing drug cartels are multifold and none of them are easy to overcome. First, there is a severe drought for ingredients used to cook methamphetamines, cocaine, and fentanyl. Chemicals necessary for their production typically are sourced from China, however the global shutdown has made their acquisition nearly impossible. Factories are closed, planes are grounded, and entire borders are locked shut. Ironically, Wuhan, the location of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, was one of the main suppliers for chemicals used in many illicit drugs.

“The main reason China has been the main supplier is the main reason China is the supplier of everything — it does it so cheaply. There was really no cost incentive for the cartels to develop this themselves,” said Ben Westoff, author of Fentanyl, Inc.

As a result, cartels have moved some production in-house, but basic chemicals are still needed from China, as Insider reported. Furthermore, if gangs manage to produce illicit drugs in the quantities they used to, they now lack the means to transport it to distributors in the US.

The US–Mexico remains closed for nonessential traffic until the end of the month. The reduced traffic flow makes it more difficult to smuggle contraband into America. For the small trickle that does make it across, buyers are now scarce, in part due to the closures of establishments that traditionally facilitated drug transactions — bars, clubs, and hotels — but also because of skyrocketing prices. 

“They are facing a supply problem and a demand problem,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former official with CISEN, the Mexican intelligence agency. “Once you get them to the market, who are you going to sell to?”

Trying Alternatives

Drug users across the world who would typically purchase hard drugs imported from Latin America are now trying a number of alternatives. Some are dialing back their choice of drug and opting for marijuana, which they can grow themselves, Foreign Policy reported. Others, such as heroine addicts in the UK, have turned to fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times stronger and thus more deadly.

“While less drugs on the street may seem like a good thing, what replaces them is usually more dangerous. We know the purity of many drugs is decreasing as dealers cut them with different substances to increase their bulk. This means people often don’t know what they are taking, increasing the chance of overdose,” said Dr. Rachel Britton, directory of pharmacy at We Are With You, a British drug, alcohol, and mental health charity.

Fentanyl can be produced without a dependence on China, making it a lucrative alternative. Fentanyl also fetches a higher price than methamphetamine.

Different Tactics

Cartels have been raising prices and even hoarding drugs in this period of uncertainty. They’ve also turned to charity work in a bid to increase their soft power among local communities, much like how Pablo Escobar endeared himself with Colombians in the 1970s and ‘80s. 

Alejandrina Guzman, daughter of the infamous drug lord El Chapo, has led food drives for starving Mexicans, personally distributing care packages herself. Other cartels have seized the opportunity as well, thanks to the state’s inefficient social programs, as Deutsche Welle reported.

“Mexico isn’t facing a humanitarian crisis or a shortage of goods,” said Falko Ernst, an analyst with the Crisis Group which focuses on Mexico. “Mexican cartels are using the current situation to strengthen their social base.”

Other cartels are diversifying their talents by dabbling in cyber crime, which continues to increase. COVID-19 has forced them to generate new sources of income as traditional revenue streams dry up.

While they try and survive, violence will only increase, particularly as governments are locked down and preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic. The opportunity is there for cartels to wreck more havoc than usual and the economic crisis gives them a compelling reason to do so. 

From manufacturing different types of drugs to hoarding supplies and fighting among one another, cartels are keeping busy. Ultimately, unless Latin American governments rededicate themselves to fighting drug syndicates, underground operations could become stronger when the pandemic ends. In a survival of the fittest, the ones who remain will be more deadly and efficient than cartels of the past. Thanks to their charitable outreach, they may even have more support among the general populace, and possibly even gain political power.

L'articolo Drug Cartels Become Deadlier Amid Pandemic Problems proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Society 06.05.2020

Acapulco, hell in paradise

In the crystal-clear waters of a bay in the Pacific Ocean, Elizabeth Taylor smiled ecstatically at the beauty of a city whose name to her and many other Hollywood celebrities was synonymous with Paradise: Acapulco. Today Acapulco, the most important…

Alfredo Bosco

But the dismembered bodies of victims not involved in criminal activities can also be found along the coast. “Things worsen over the weekend. We get more tourists, but we also receive more reports on shootings,” declares Paco, a photographer who has been witnessing this weekly massacre for years.
Justice is unable take its course, coming up against a wall of silence. It is extremely rare to find witnesses, even when a victim is found during afternoon hours in the middle of a crowded market. Local reporters themselves put themselves at great risk, rarely do they move autonomously and prefer to travel in groups. They fear trick calls and traps orchestrated by the city’s criminals. “We are constantly in danger, in July they fired at my car, it’s a miracle I’m alive,” Nelson Matus tells his colleagues after having suffered an attack in the neighbourhood he lives in.

Between 2017 and 2018, Mexico sustained a record number of victims due to the war on drug trafficking and criminal gangs. In the State of Guerrero alone there were over 2500 victims in 2018. However, the first months of 2020 appear to be more positive, possibly also thanks to the decision of Obrador’s government to establish a National Guard.  The president of Mexico’s aim was to send a strong signal and he obtained the absolute majority for the institution of a new security body, whose powers will surpass those of the police or the army. According to some, this could be a dangerous game: a democracy with an armed force which can operate through special laws could lead to the violation of human rights.  However president Obrador strongly rejects such accusations.
The ferociousness of the cartels and other groups is atrocious. They do not limit themselves to killing but go so far as to implement what is known as “necropolitics”: the use of power to induce fear in people and taking on the role of judge to decide who lives and who dies in their territory. Dismembered and mutilated bodies, cruel letters to relatives of the victims even going so far as to mock them.

L'articolo Acapulco, hell in paradise proviene da InsideOver.

On the one hand Mexico is a paradise for tourists from all over the world, on the other it is the kingdom of narcos. These are the two faces of this country, where power is guaranteed by killing and the war between drug gangs is recording a remarkable increase in deaths.

So much so that many talk about “necromancy”, of a state ruled over deaths. But there are also those who won’t give in to the violence of gangs, like the inhabitans of  the village of Rincon De Chautla, that is constantly threatened by Los Ardillos.

Here women and children are forced to carry a rifle to defend themselves. Violence calls violence. And now Mexico is a heaven turning into hell.

L'articolo Hell in Mexico proviene da InsideOver.

President Trump recently announced a war against cartels seeking to send drugs across the Mexican border and terrorize citizens on both sides. This is almost getting swamped by the news of coronavirus and will likely lead to insincere accusations that Trump is trying to distract America. But the move still shows the importance of responding to recent events, the multifaceted nature of the border conflict, and sharply contrasts with the supposed Russian superiority in hybrid war.

The Dangerous Mexico Border Region

The history of the US-Mexico border region includes a recent massacre of dual citizen families. Back in November of 2019 nine family members, including three mothers and six children, were brutally massacred by a Mexican cartel. The family members felt safe in this province because they were nominally off limits. The thinking for this immunity goes all the way back to the American mob and the St. Valentine’s day massacre. There were many in the mob that thought high profile attacks and massacres alerted the authorities and were bad for business. That business worked better, as Bugsy Siegel said, when they only killed each other, and the authorities were less focused on them as a result.

These new attacks then were apparently from a faction that disregarded the old rules and struck American women and children which Trump is now proving will very much be bad for business. It is excellent news that America is finally acting against the cartel. Still, one can’t help but feel that any potential strikes might be more successful if the cartels didn’t know US strikes were coming. Everybody knows the US has amazing intelligence capabilities and drones that can surveil targets 24 hours a day. But a massive surprise strike could kill key leaders, destroy important buildings, and strike terror in the hearts of our enemies when they realize that we can unleash great havoc with no warning. The only apparent advantage of announcing the program is that it’s possible alerting drug gangs of an increased readiness to fight might act as a deterrent to cartel members trying to take advantage of a distracted America.

How Can America Crush the Cartels?

Yet beyond a vague concept of drones and some talk about coast guard and Navy ships it’s important to discuss what those assets will do. As mentioned, American drones already provide ready surveillance and can transmit data to attack drones. But there is much more to a drug war than launching missiles.

Additional US Coast Guard ships will provide increased reconnaissance patrols in the Pacific and Caribbean. The Navy is also supplying P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, destroyers, and littoral combat ships. All of these specialize in shipping interdiction. The littoral combat ships and Coast Guard Cutters are smaller vessels designed to operate closer to shore. The littoral ships are also stealthy so they can better track and follow drug smugglers than the cutters and the navy’s destroyers. The bigger ships like the destroyers bring have impressive radar and carry a compliment of helicopters. Mexico has been relying on its helicopters to track down smugglers for years.

At the same time America is putting warships and planes along travel routes from Mexico, which is not a strictly war time scenario. They can’t simply attack any target in Mexico. What they can do is use the gathered data to assist the Mexican police in their operations to seize drug shipments, arrest cartel leaders, and confiscate drug shipments in international waters. Thus it requires a great deal of sensitivity to wage what newspapers are calling “war” but what actually involves carefully supporting legal operations against a shadow Mexican regime without violating Mexican sovereignty.

The Complexity of Hybrid Warfare

Having to fight something that is both warlike and a legal battle at the same time shows the difficulty of actual hybrid warfare. The army chief of staff defines it as a “diverse and dynamic combinations of conventional, irregular, terrorist and criminal capabilities.”  Russia has been cited as a bogeyman for their use of so-called hybrid warfare in seizing the Crimea and their destabilizing of Ukraine. Russia seems more similar to meddling and sometimes opportunist bad actors from the past that use these limited new concepts in supported of traditional goals and methods. In contrast, the US faces a tougher and more thorough hybrid war in that they must use military assets and various intelligence gathering methods across different services and 22 different countries. The operation will also have to utilize law enforcement officials in what are both military and legal operations against a powerful shadow state. The latter actually looks more difficult than anything Russia has done in the last decade and shows that US hybrid war capabilities should not be underestimated.

As you can see this is not simply a diversionary exercise during the coronavirus, but a much-needed — if complicated — effort to stop the cartels from exporting drugs and violence. Trump is finally taking extra action against barbaric cartels that killed American citizens in Mexico and make money off of drugs that kill many more. This is a largely intelligence-driven effort to aid interdiction and law enforcement efforts that also uses many military methods and tactics. It shows that America shouldn’t be intimidated by buzzwords like hybrid warfare being used by foreign adversaries since in actual practice Washington displays much more capability at it than any other actor.

L'articolo Trump’s Overdue “War” on Drug Cartels proviene da InsideOver.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime wants to facilitate civil society’s contribution in tackling corruption in South America and Mexico. The report, released on the 20th of this month, reveals that the UNODC wants to fast-track the United Nations Convention against Corruption’s (UNCAC) implementation in the region.

Tackling Mexico’s Monstrous Drug Cartels

In 2013, Mexico was one of the two most corrupt countries in Latin America, according to the Global Corruption Barometer. Last year, Mexico fell down to the 15th out of all eighteen Latin American countries, with 61% of those surveyed saying that the Mexican government is doing well in tackling corruption. But this is not enough.

A significant propellant of corruption and violence in Mexico is its illegal drug trade. In 2017 alone more than 30,000 people were killed in Mexico by drug cartels. The country’s brutal drug war kills tens of thousands of people yearly. Since 2006, murder rates have more than tripled in the country.

Drugs are an important global financial resource, along with oil and weapons. Our globalized financial system would not survive without the profit from the drugs trade. In 2017, Global Financial Integrity reported that the global market in drug trafficking had an annual estimate of between $426 billion and $652 billion. Although it is impossible to accurately calculate due to its illegality, the global illicit drug trade surpasses the GDP of many countries. It is the second most lucrative illicit market in the world, after counterfeit and pirated goods.

Mexico’s Troubled History of Drug Trafficking

In Mexico, the illicit drug market has a history steeped in neocolonialism. During the 1980s, under President Miguel de la Madrid, drug trafficking rates increased significantly. The creation of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) in 1991 accelerated these rates at incredible speed.

Executive Intelligence Review reports that free trade under the FTAA created “overnight, multi-million dollar fortunes”. Under this new drug boom, criminal activity grew, including among high-level and low-level officials. Presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio and other members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party would be politically assassinated, as huge profits spread corruption among Mexico’s leaders.

In November last year, US President Donald Trump, vowed to “wage war on on the [Mexican] drug cartels”, designating them terrorist groups, under the same classification as Al Qaeda in the Middle East. Under this new classification, Mexican drug cartels would be considered “foreign terrorist organizations”, leaving Mexico open to a US-led counterterrorism military operations in Mexico and other Latin American states.

The United States’ hard stance on Mexico’s drug trafficking is, however, a different development to the country’s stance prior to — and during — the creation of the FTAA, an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Indigenous revolutionaries protesting against this imperialist trade agreement were crushed and murdered under the authority of Mexican officials. The FTAA deal brought in mass privatization of Mexican resources, sold to the highest US bidders. It proved to be highly successful, leaving the country’s citizens poor and susceptible to the financial profits offered for joining drug cartels.

‘US Agencies Allowed Him Access to His Money’

In 2017, Juan Pablo Escobar Henao, son of the infamous Medellin cartel drug kingpin Pablo Escobar revealed in an interview that his father “did not make his money alone, but with US agencies that allowed him access to this money.”

In his second book, Pablo Escobar in Fraganti, Escobar, writing under the pseudonym Juan Sebastian Marroquin, explained that Mexico’s drug cartels are only a part of “international ties of corruption in which [his] father had an active participation”.

The financial, globalized and governmental operations of the global drug trade is an intricate and interconnected – albeit illegal — market. From the powerful, hidden figures who control the drug trade under the protection of official titles, to those who buy the drugs globally, the question of who runs the Mexican cartels is a complicated one. Juan Escobar observes that the illegalization of drugs is a tactic for pro-drug propaganda: its illegal status gives it more appeal among users. (The illegality of products and services has always served to make its market more profitable.)

Those who profit financially from Mexico’s drug cartels manipulated the law to prohibit drugs, then manipulated trade agreements to benefit from this prohibition. It is safe to say that those who run Mexican drug cartels are those who propagate, and benefit from, our present capitalist-imperialist system.

L'articolo Who is Behind the Profitable and Vicious Mexican Drug Cartels? proviene da InsideOver.