Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 02/24/2026 5:35:28 AM PST by Cronos
Drug lords have been killed or captured, and cartels have splintered or collapsed, only to see more violent ones replace them and the illicit trade expand.
So, 60years of war on drugs, what has actually worked?
...The Sinaloa Cartel, after all, did not go away after its chief, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the notorious drug lord known as El Chapo, was captured and extradited to the United States.
...Rather than simply going after kingpins like Mr. Oseguera, the authorities need to take a holistic approach to dismantle these groups more completely, analysts say.
The Mexican government has to use a combination of force on the ground and smart investigative work to defeat the Jalisco Cartel, former diplomats say. It is a model similar to the one Colombia adopted beginning in the 1990s.
...Colombia’s initial success battling the cartels in the 1990s offers a good lesson for Mexico, former U.S. diplomats who have worked on both countries say.
Back then, the Colombian government deployed its security forces to capture and kill high-ranking cartel members, while also increasing its investigative capacities to unravel the groups’ hidden financial infrastructure. It also strengthened the judicial system to end impunity.
After Colombia largely brought down the country’s kingpins in that decade, the United States helped the government there expand its authority across the country.
For every dollar the U.S. spent, Colombia spent three, Mr. Robinson said. It was part of an effort to eradicate coca crops and bring schools, roads and other economic incentives to remote communities where the government had dislodged drug trafficking groups.
But the government was not able to expand its authority to all parts of the country. In the vacuum, paramilitary and guerrilla groups took over cocaine production and trafficking. Cocaine production exploded across the country about a decade ago, analysts say.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Why in the world would I read an article by the New York Times on what to do about the drug problem?
What should happen nexT?
Give them more, unaccounted, American tax money.
That’s what we always have done.
This is plain silly. It’s an opinion piece in The Times that has some good ideas. The suggestion that The Times is a monolithic voice of the Left is as wrongheaded as saying Fox News is uniformly conservative.
How is the conclusion partisan or incorrect?
“The Mexican government needs to immediately start working across municipalities and states to dislodge the Jalisco Cartel and start exerting authority, Mr. Robinson said. But historically, Mexico’s federal governments have been reluctant to work with political rivals, creating a patchy security response that provides safe havens in which cartels can operate.
” ‘Mexico is not traditionally good at that,’ “ Mr. Robinson said. “The ruling party tends to support the governor or mayor that are part of their party, and leave those mayors who are from the opposition alone to fend for themselves against the cartels.”
“In contrast, the Jalisco Cartel works closely with dozens of smaller criminal groups to exert its muscle across the country and challenge the government’s authority.
“On Sunday, the cartel was able to showcase its strength and territorial reach when it set fires to banks and storefronts and blocked roads and highways in some 20 states across Mexico. In many states, the Mexican government failed to respond.”
What works? The same thing that works for alcohol addiction — people realizing that their wellbeing is not in a pill or a bottle. People have a hard time with this nowadays because the mental health industry relies heavily on psychiatric drugs to help people to cope with life’s inevitable problems.
Each and every day we gain more proof that NYT journalists successfully compete for “lowest of the low”.
Well, we know a couple things that don’t work - leaving the border wide open to allow cartels to easily bring fentanyl into the country. But if the relatively wealthy US wants drugs, people will find a way to supply it.
End the War On Drugs. Educate people as to the risks. Let the chips fall where they may. Self eradicating problem. Won’t be pretty, but would probably work. Heartless? Probably, but 60 years in what is being done isn’t working even a little bit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.