Drugged Diplomacy
Mark Grime explores the ascendency of Mexican criminal syndicates in subverting and shaping U.S. Foreign Policy.
It is simplistic to claim that democracy has acted as the catalyst for the transfer of power from the Mexican state to drug cartels. Rather, the increasing power of drug cartels in shaping international policy is a byproduct of the institutionalisation of corruption within the Mexican state and the forces of democratisation. The cartels have infiltrated politics at the national and international levels to ensure both their security and the security of their lucrative trade. The result is that the cartels are not fighting the Government. They are fighting each other.
The Situation in Mexico: “La Plata O El Plomo”
Although the fight against drug cartels has been a part of Mexico’s political history for decades, there has been a surge in drug-related violence in recent years. This has become more evident since the democratic election of President Felipe Calderón in January 2006. In February 2009, drug-war related deaths topped 6,600; of these, approximately 5,000 were innocent civilians, more than the five-year total of U.S. casualties in Iraq.
Drug cartels are seemingly undermining the state: infiltrating local and regional governments, targeting corrupt police officers and judicial officials, and threatening and killing independent journalists. Those in public positions often face the ultimate Faustian bargain: “la plata o el plomo” – money or death.
Is Democratisation to Blame?
From 1945, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) brokered understandings with drug cartels: a patron-client relationship wherein officials and civilians were protected from cartel violence in return for high-level cartel members being insulated from prosecution. This bargain defined the rules of the game for traffickers. Although the level of institutional corruption was high, it nevertheless allowed political stability.
Heading into the twenty-first century, the PRI’s “perfect dictatorship” disintegrated, as the National Action Party garnered support for its reform platform, espousing economic liberalism, growth and transparency. Shannon O’Neil explains: “Electoral competition nullified the unwritten understandings, requiring drug lords to re-negotiate with the new political establishment and encouraging rival traffickers to bid for new market opportunities.” The end of Mexico’s one-party dominated system – driven by U.S. demands for stronger democratic institutions and a market economy – has ushered in a new wave of democratisation.
Those in public positions often face the ultimate Faustian bargain: “la plata o el plomo” – money or death.
One may have expected such democratic processes to result in a war between the government and the drug cartels. Instead, a civil war has ensued between the cartels, all of which have so deeply infiltrated the Government that the term ‘corruption’ has lost all of its descriptive power.
Subversion of U.S. Foreign Policy
In 2008, the U.S. launched the Mérida Initiative, granting $1.4 billion in police and military aid to the Mexican Government to combat the drug cartels. Undoubtedly, these funds will assist the very institutions that have been infiltrated by the cartels. Thus, U.S. ‘support’ in the drug war continually and directly feeds the drug cartels, which siphon funds from government coffers to fuel their violent campaigns.
Moreover, the United States’ agenda for promoting democratisation south of the border is exacerbating the violence. As mentioned, the rebirth of democracy in Mexico has forced a ‘re-negotiation’ of previously unwritten agreements between the cartels and the state. Therefore, the continued insulation and support of the U.S. for Calderón’s democracy is likely to propel drug violence further, as U.S. support allows the cartels to retain control of their respective territories.
The Result
The drug cartels are using the Mexican state as a puppet to influence U.S. foreign policy objectives, to create conditions favourable to the cartels. In doing so, the cartels can leverage their position with the Government to demand more capital input by the U.S. into the Mérida Initiative, and therefore continue their violent campaigns to secure dominance and to protect their lucrative trade.
The drug cartels are using the Mexican state as a puppet to influence U.S. foreign policy objectives, to create conditions favourable to the cartels.
Although U.S. policy initiatives are well-intentioned, the high level of institutionalised corruption within the Mexican state has allowed subversion to support excessive violence, adding to existing oppressive conditions, and leading to further destabilisation of the state.
However, the Mexican drug war is not a zero-sum game between the state and the cartels. Rather, the cartels have been able to manipulate policies for their own benefit to elevate their influence within the Mexican Government and influence U.S. foreign policy towards Mexico. Felipe Calderón’s election represented democratic progress, removing much pre-existing institutionalised corruption.
Victory in Mexico’s drug war will be dependent on the state’s ability to further consolidate democracy and eradicate corruption from its institutions. Until then, the drug cartels of Mexico will continue to command a powerful position within regional policy development. So long as the re-infiltration of the state apparatus is necessary to secure their lucrative trade, the cartels will continue to subvert U.S. policy by instigating anarchy.
