Image courtesy of Flickr. Mexican President Obrador and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in Mexico City in 2018 to discuss Obrador’s peace plan.
BY LILY REAVIS ’21
In October, the LeBarón family was brutally murdered by cartel gunmen along a backroad in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. The massacre’s motive remains unclear, but three women and six children were shot at close range and their bodies burned inside their cars. The family was uninvolved in drug trade — the killing was not. The family was caught in between two rival drug gangs, demonstrating the hold drug cartels and the violence they perpetrate have on the country.
Mexican state-based violence is at an all-time high, and the U.S. is, in large part, to blame. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s peace-based plan to end conflict must be overturned, or Mexico will become a failed state with no control of power.
Last month, when cartel gunmen shut down the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa and killed a dozen citizens over the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López, the Mexican army failed. It was weaker than the cartel and López was released. López, the son of famous kingpin “El Chapo,” had been indicted for drug trafficking in the United States, becoming only the most recent figurehead to be targeted by American forces.
After the Mexican army conceded, President Obrador spoke in support of their retreat, naming the commanding officer in the process. Now, he has lost the support of many army officers who doubt he will protect them in future conflicts.
American President Trump’s protectionist Mexico policies are as much to blame as Obrador’s. Under Trump’s rule, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has remained unresolved, causing major shockwaves for the Mexican economy and encouraging illicit drug trade among citizens.
Without free and fair trade across borders, many Mexican workers are unable to provide for their families, forcing them to turn to the drug trade.
NAFTA’s blockade is to blame for hundreds of deaths in Mexico throughout Trump’s rule.
Last year, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigned in outrage over America’s apathy toward Mexico’s needs. It took the U.S. an entire year to find and place a new Ambassador.
The U.S. does not care about the Mexican drug war. It will not put forth the resources Mexico needs and this has pushed the country closer to the brink of failure.
Trump’s insistence on a heavily-controlled northern border has forced the Mexican military to outsource their members, decreasing the level of protection available throughout the state. With looser border controls, the Mexican army may have been able to subdue the cartel gunmen in Culiacán last month.
This year has been the most violent in all of modern Mexico’s history. The New York Times reported 17,000 deaths in the country between January and June of 2019, constituting a nearly 20 percent increase in homicides from the same period in 2018.
When President Obrador came into power in 2018, he vowed to regain peace in the country through mindful militarization of police forces. This is not working.
Mexico’s civil institutions are in shambles — the militarized police force have lost trust in their commander, the judicial system refuses to rule on almost any cases and the state police have becoming embroiled with the drug trade.
Mexico cannot achieve peace, with its current political turmoil and lack of funding, or without meaningful resource aid from the United States. Trump must loosen his border restrictions and offer strategic and monetary aid to Mexico.
If the U.S. continues to turn a blind eye to Mexico’s violence, the state will fail. Furthermore, if President Obrador does not redesign his peacemaking tactics, and soon, cartels will continue to gain power and massacre the country.