What is the reason for maintaining this war? Justify the militarization of the country? Strengthen centralized power? We do not understand the delay. It is urgent to move forward in drug regulation.
Quintana Roo is about to collapse. The deterioration in security is alarming, it has been two consecutive years in which it doubles its homicide rate.
Let’s see the data: 2016 was a good year since there was a 28% reduction compared to the previous year; the rate closed at 12 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants.
However, in 2017 this changed radically; the state had an increase of 118% and closed with a rate of 27 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants. In 2018 the homicide rose 113% and closed with a rate of 58 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants.
For comparison, remember that the world has a rate of 6.2 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants and Mexico closed 2018 with its highest historical rate of 23. Well, Quintana Roo is located 4 times above the national rate and 10 times above the world rate.
This is even more serious if analyzed at the municipal level: Benito Juárez (Cancún) has a rate of 82, Tulum 81, Solidaridad 79, Puerto Morelos 78, Bacalar 49, Lázaro Cárdenas 36 and Isla Mujeres 25 homicides per 100 thousand inhabitants.
When we see an increase of this size in the homicide rate of some state it is very clear that it is due to the litigation between mafias of the black market of drugs.
Not all organized crime executes, it does the one that is dedicated to drug trafficking. The mafias of this business defend their territory with bullets and messages are sent with the dead. Let’s see the specific issue of executions: In 2016 the average number of executions per month was close to 11, in 2017, the average rose to 24 and last year, the figure reached 60 executions per month.
However, the problem does not stop there, because in this environment of silver or lead, corruption and extreme violence, society and authority collapse. In the Traffic Light we see reds and deterioration in other crimes such as vehicle theft, extortion, business robbery, malicious injuries and family violence. Stress extends to the entire system.
It is possible that all this violence is not yet touching tourists significantly, but it is definitely affecting the population and the perception of security. The low tourism, as happened in Acapulco or Los Cabos, is a matter of time and can be precipitated with a history of terror.
The mission of a state or municipal authority is not war but economic, social and urban development, and in terms of security, the prevention of patrimonial and socio-family crimes. The cause of this deterioration is not at the local level but at the federal level: The federal government has created chaos in the country by prohibiting drugs and trying to fight them with bullets.
We have said many times, the markets do not fight with police or army, but with economic principles. But Mexico does not seem to want to understand the lesson. Quintana Roo is not the exception, but the rule. We are concerned about the deterioration of other states that join the long list of states with red centers such as Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon and the CDMX.
The Plan Peace and Security of AMLO provides for the regulation of drugs such as harm reduction strategy, but has not been implemented. The initiative to regulate cannabis sleeps a deep sleep in the Senate and we do not see initiatives to regulate other substances that create violence to us like opium (poppy), cocaine or meta-amphetamines.
Regulating drugs is the only way to solve this root dilemma. Without a black market, lead and silver are finished, and what remains of it – for other reasons, it is fought in a traditional way, with intelligence, social prevention and local police. But we can hardly make or execute a peace strategy with a gorilla on the table.
However, it seems that AMLO is betting more on the same thing because it tries to maintain the frontal clash with the National Guard and the army, something that only some countries like Colombia, the Philippines and Brazil do, with the same negative consequences as in Mexico.
Needless to say, no developed country makes a war on drugs. Some prevent, others regulate, some soften the prohibition, others simulate, but none make a war. Not even in the US Do you know of a capo that has fallen in the US? No, they only catch minor drug dealers.
Needless to say, it is a war with classist overtones as those who die or are captured, are mainly young people with few opportunities in life, yes, the poor, and they are also the ones who suffer the most when productive investment is withdrawn due to insecurity, extreme corruption and because of bad government decisions.
We have lost paradise, to recover it is not about praying or catechizing but about regulating with intelligence.
Source: Semaforo Delictivo
The Mazatlan Post
