The ball’s in your court: US-Mexico Security Pact

My translation, and rework of “Cooperación entre México y EU en seguridad puede mejorar: especialista“, Emir Olivares Alonso, La Jornada, 11 Oct 2021, page 10).

When it comes to a bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States, security cooperation is fundamental, but it can improve, readjusted and, above all, respect the the sovereignty of the two nations, said the internationalist and expert in US_Mexican relations, Eduardo Rosales.

Interviewed on the high-level security discussion being held between the two nations, the Acatlán School of Higher Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) researcher noted that the United States would have to take co-responsiblity for combatting violence and crime in Mexico (and at home. He indicated that while any agreement must criticize Mexico’s inability to stop crime, the White House must also be self-critical and recognize that the problem is also its responsibility.

“Corruption exists there as well; drugs pass through and are sold not by large cartels, but by organized gangs that operate freely and have not been fought; They give criminal groups firepower with little control over the sale of weapons; The beneficiaries of money laundering are the banks, the most conservative figure is that around 30 billion dollars from drug trafficking enter the US financial circuits a year, the drug traffickers are the criminal and visible arm of the neighboring country’s banker. The United States must work to bring all of that down. ”

The specialist said that the war on drugs — begun in the mid 1970s by the Richard Nixon administration — has spent 100 billion dollars to combat trafficking and consumption: And what has been the result?

“They have not been able to change the culture, in their country there are between 23 and 24 million habitual drug users and if you count the occasional drug users the figure is close to 50 million people. Nothing is done about the demand, and little is done about the supply”.