A Lucrative System

Sometimes, the overwhelming violence in Mexico due to the drug trade can be bewildering, especially when innocent civilians, human rights activists and journalists are brutally murdered. But this violence, of course, is not created out of thin air; it is the consequence of corrupting policies in the United States. Like the earlier Prohibition against alcohol, the prohibition of other drugs like cocaine and marijuana benefits both organized crime and law enforcement agencies, arms manufacturers, and the financial services industry that launders the illicit proceeds. Taken as a whole, it is a lucrative system that works very well for corrupt governments and enterprises on both sides of the border, but is a living nightmare for everyone else.

As Antifascist Calling reports, the escalating violence in Mexico is a direct consequence of US policy, including the arming of that policy that distributed military grade weapons throughout the region, often into the hands of narcotics cartels that provided protection to traffickers, but also targeted political opponents of corrupt officialdom. Given the new gifts from the US Government to the Mexican Government for surveillance of communications, that means that whistleblowers, activists and journalists attempting to restore sanity to their country will be easier to identify and terminate.

For the moment, that kind of data in the US is used mainly by law enforcement against political opponents of neoliberalism, but if things work well for them in Mexico, national security criminal enterprises in the US could start using it themselves--against us.