Working with the Drug Trade in Bid to Keep Mexico's Democracy Alive Luke Holland - The Irish Times
go to original January 26, 2016

El Chapo is Caught, But Corruption, U.S. Consumption & Failed Drug War Keep the Cartels in Business (Democracy Now!)

Statistics from Mexico’s war on drugs tell a story so cruel it can be difficult to comprehend. Estimates of the number killed over the past decade range from 50,000 to over 100,000, while some 22,000 have been forcibly disappeared.

The country also suffers the highest number of kidnappings in the world and reports of torture have risen 600 per cent in recent years.

To understand the quagmire Mexico is in, however, you need to recognise that the production and trafficking of narcotics has been an integral part of the country’s economic lifeblood for many decades, stretching back to the early 20th century.

In many rural areas it has developed its own folklore, complete with traditional songs and ceremonies, as involvement in narcotics production has become a multi-generational community identity.

What has changed in recent times is the level – and the ferocity – of the violence.

So what happened to upset what was once a stable, albeit illicit, pillar of the country’s economy?

Ironically, much can be traced back to Mexico’s transition from a de facto one-party state to a democracy. When the pro-business National Action Party won the presidency in 2000, ousting the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 71 years in power, a long-standing “pax-narcotica” began to disintegrate.

Read the rest at The Irish Times

Related: 6 Things Going on in Mexico's Drug War That Matter More Than El Chapo (The Huffington Post)

Related: How El Chapo Distracts from Mexico’s Main Problems (Global Risk Insights)

Related: Questioning of Lawmaker Linked to El Chapo Guzman Criticized in Mexico (ICR News)

Related: Mexico Is More Than Drugs, Kingpins, Says 'Cowboy Bible' Author (NBC News Latino)

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