Why a military incursion into Mexico targeting drug labs would do more harm than good

As of 2020, then-President Donald Trump was enthusiastic about the idea. missile launch The target was a drug laboratory belonging to a cartel that had expanded into Mexico. During his 2024 campaign, he told his supporters he wanted to send special operations forces to Mexico to attack cartel operations.all about him past and present The main Republican opponents have made similar promises, as have many Republican leaders. meeting.

Sending special forces to Mexico could not only kill innocent people, but also stimulate an influx of refugees across our southern border and even facilitate the smuggling of new, more dangerous drugs into our country. Because it is no longer accurate to describe these organizations as “Mexican drug cartels” or even to think of them as having roots in Mexico.

Our more than 50 years of drug wars have elevated these groups to transnational drug trafficking organizations. These criminal organizations infiltrate the government, from local police and local government officials to national enforcement agencies. Think of them like big legal multinational corporations like Exxon Mobile or Microsoft, except they’re underground, have armies, and are ruthless killers. Also, since antitrust laws do not apply to them, they may cooperate or merge with other transnational drug traffickers depending on the situation.

In fact, Mexico’s current drug cartels arose solely due to the transnational nature of the cocaine trade. As anyone who watches Netflix will tell you, the Medellin Cartel, led by Colombian Pablo Escobar, became the world’s most powerful criminal organization in the 1980s, thanks in part to General Augusto Pinochet. It was the result of an early war against drug traffickers in Chile.

Still, like Stephen Cohen I have written For the New Republic, cocaine “first arrived in Colombia from Bolivia (where the military partnered with the drug mafia to overthrow the government in the 1980 cocaine coup), and Pinochet was no exception. And in Peru, the military was operated and is currently operating”, protection for coca shipments. ”

Within Colombia, Medellin became the center of the cocaine industry due to the Antioquia region’s strategic access to the Gulf of Uraba.Historian Muriel Laurent I have writtenAntioquia’s proximity to Panama made it an important smuggling route, and in the mid-19th century it replaced Jamaica as the main export destination for tobacco, alcohol, and other illicit goods entering mainland Colombia via the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. became. Antioquia’s well-developed infrastructure made it easy for local smugglers to transition from tobacco to cocaine.Historian Malcolm Dees I have written On Escobar’s first steps into the criminal world: “He is said to have been prominent in the conflict known as the ‘Marlboro Wars,’ fought to control Colombia’s most heavily smuggled cigarette supply. ”

Escobar built his cocaine empire by controlling Noman’s Cay in the Bahamas, another outpost with a smuggling history that, like Jamaica, dates back to colonial times. When the Bahamian and U.S. governments objected to the cartel’s easy route between Norman’s Cay and South Florida, Escobar adapted by establishing outposts in Haiti and Panama. The overland route of cocaine from Panama through Central America and Mexico to the United States is the root of the current fentanyl crisis.as Journalist Peter S. Green wrote:The Medellin cartel’s partnership with Mexican smugglers “helped launch the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Tampico cartels, which subsequently turned Mexico into a de facto narcostate.”

Colombian cartels invaded Mexico decades ago, but in recent years Mexican cartels have established a foothold in Colombia.According to the Columbia Police Department’s 2021 report. saw According to Reuters, representatives of the Mexican cartel were in “11 of Colombia’s 32 states.” Nevertheless, its range extends far beyond South America and even beyond the Western Hemisphere.

Mexican and Colombian cartels don’t just supply cocaine to the Italian mafia. The former is also increasinglySmuggle unfinished agricultural products and coca base and process it into cocaine in Europe”, a way to cut out the middlemen in the world’s most lucrative market.

Now we are seeing evidence of the involvement of Mexican cartels and Balkan drug lords, especially their organizations. albanian mafiaEurope’s leading drug smuggler, ecuador This is to take advantage of the geographical location and convenient ports for transportation.

As these organizations mature, they are also diversifying.they traffic everything Smuggling of pirated DVDs.

Like other organized crime syndicates, Mexican cartels also blackmail In exchange for protection from theft and assault, they extract a portion of the profits of local businesses.they even rob large multinational corporation In exchange for protection. Therefore, they compete with and destabilize legitimate governments that demand money (taxes) in exchange for protection. Cartels have become larger and more powerful than many governments trying to fight them.

America’s drug war has contributed to the strengthening and globalization of cartels. This has motivated the development of more potent synthetic forms of the drug, such as fentanyl and fentanyl, which can be manufactured more efficiently and are easier to smuggle. Nitazen. A military invasion would not only be wasteful, but would also make criminal organizations and the drugs they traffic even more powerful.

So what should American policymakers do? In the short term, they can remove obstacles to government. harm reduction strategies such as Syringe service program and Overdose Prevention Center. They can reform an inhuman and reckless society methadone Policies that allow primary care clinicians to treat addicted patients, similar to those in the UK, Canada and Australia.

In the long run, repealing drug prohibition will be more detrimental to these transnational criminal organizations than firing missiles or sending in special forces.

Jeffrey A. Singer practices general surgery in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Daniel Raisbeck is a Latin America policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Freedom and Prosperity.