Mexico's Interior Minister Blake Mora died this week in a mysterious helicopter crash. As Interior Minister he was the guy in charge of Mexico's increasingly bloody war on narco-terror.
His death comes almost exactly three years after the death of his predecessor, Juan Camilo Mourino, in another mystery aviation accident. Coincidence?
The so-called war on narco-terror swept in with the arrival of Jose Calderon in the Presidential palace in 2006. While Mexico is a nominal "democracy" few doubt that Calderon "won" a rigged election, won it because he was the guy we wanted to win it.
No sooner was he in power than he discovered rampant drug trafficking from one end of his country to the other. All that South American nose candy finds its way to US markets by travelling through Mexico. So, with lots of pressure and loads of money from Washington, Calderon decided he would end America's drug problem by putting the Mexican drug-runners out of business. Since most of the cops in his country are apparently on the take, he decided to make this a project for the army and declared an all out military assault on the drug cartels.
The result after five years, as any fifth grader from LA to NYC can tell you, is that his war on the "narco-terrorists" has had no impact whatsoever on the availability of cocaine in America. It has however taken the lives of over 45,000 Mexicans.
So the lesson Calderon takes from this experience is that if you implement a sketchy policy, and after five years the policy has had no discernable effect on the problem, but has cost the lives of 45,000 of your citizens, the best thing to do is more of the same!
Here's why it will never work. Every time you see the headlines about some cartel leader or another being put out of business, there are half a dozen younger, more aggressive, more ruthless guys waiting to step into his shoes.
Meanwhile, the cartels seem to be able to pull off some pretty impressive aviation accidents.
And the cocaine just keeps on coming.
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