A Mexican government official has told reporters that the CIA and other international security forces are not fighting drug traffickers, but rather they are managing the trade. This is the latest astounding claim about violence that has lasted more than six years and claimed more than 55,000 lives.
How much of this is the US really responsible for? The picture provides a clue.
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
7/26/2012 (2 years ago)
Published in Americas
Keywords: Mexico, drugs, war, CIA, cartels, illegal, crime, clandestine, trafficking
JUAREZ, MEXICO (Catholic Online) - Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico, made the claim which has people in Washington upset. While Villanueva is not the first person to make such claims, he is the highest-ranking official to do so thus far.
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Villanueva told a reporter for Al Jazeera, "It's like pest control companies, they only control, if you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."
Villanueva's superiors and the mayor of Juarez, are repudiating his claims.
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Juarez Mayor, Hector Murguia, said, "I think the CIA and DEA are on the same side as us in fighting drug gangs. We have excellent collaboration with the US." Al Jazeera noted he made those comments in the safety of his SUV.
While US law enforcement and security agencies might well be doing their best to fight the cartels, the reality is America is very much to blame for the violence in Mexico. The United States is the destination for virtually all of the drugs smuggled across Mexico, which are paid for with dollars. And flowing south across the border are guns, obtained through the US - guns that often end up killing people.
Meanwhile the US has funneled more than $1.4 billion in aid to the Mexican government to provide training and equipment for the drug war, but that doesn't mean all efforts have been helpful.Â
Certainly, efforts like Fast and Furious, an infamous debacle where US supplied arms were deliberately placed in the hands of the cartels, by government agents, no less, have harmed the image of the US as an ally. In Fast and Furious, the weapons were "lost" and subsequently used to kill a untold number of Mexican civilians and at least one US border patrol agent.
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A number of Mexicans blame the CIA for making the problem worse, rather than better. They see in the current war, the machinations of powerful, secretive agencies whose agenda is more about enrichment and empowerment, than justice.
There is a history. The CIA has been linked to drug trafficking for decades, with the money often used to finance clandestine operations around the world. At one time, US senator and former presidential candidate, John Kerry said, "There is no question in my mind that people affiliated with or on the payroll of, the CIA were involved in drug trafficking." In addition to Senator Kerry, a number of other sources, including media sources have occasionally done exposés on inappropriate, clandestine CIA activity.
It is difficult to disagree with Villanueva and others who share his view, especially when considering the dissonance between known capabilities and actual results. For example, the US is able to track down terrorists in the most inhospitable regions of the Earth (or in their urban lairs) and strike them either using special forces, specially trained local police, or even with unmanned predator drones. Yet, in Mexico, it is proving impossible to intercept high-profile drug lords who live in palatial mansions in full view of the world.
How do these evil men escape justice without the complicity of the government and agencies that are charged with bringing them to justice?
While the quality of the involvement of the CIA and other security agencies may be debatable, it is impossible to excise the blame from America. The United States is the market and the source of the money and the guns that have spread so much death and destruction across Mexico. If the CIA is part of the problem, then it will only be one more sign of the corruption and evil that pervades American and Mexican politics and holds hostage millions of innocents.Â
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