U.S. businesses at risk of becoming targets of Mexican drug cartels

This another great reason to legalize drugs just like we did with alcohol. During the first prohibition there blood baths and corruption was a big problem.  Just as it is now.  If we legalize drugs then the Taliban and the drug cartels would be out of business…not the US.

By ALEJANDRA LABANCA

American interests could become targets of Mexico's drug cartels as Washington deepens its involvement in the war against drugs south of the border, according to a leading global intelligence and security corporation.

In a report by Miami-based Kroll Associates issued by one of its executives at the Americas Conference in Coral Gables, the company cautions that ``the more the U.S. government gets involved... it is not unlikely that U.S. companies may be faced with extortion, that local managers are kidnapped for ransom, and that truck high-jacking increases.''

Under former President George W. Bush, Congress passed a law to provide $1.4 billion worth of equipment, training and intelligence in the span of three years to help Mexico fight drug cartels.

On Wednesday, Dan Restrepo, special assistant to President Barack Obama and senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, pointed out that the current administration is committed to continue cooperating with Mexico. He said Washington has increased resources for drug programs and beefed up security along the southwest border to try to constrain the rampant smuggling of assault weapons heading into Mexico.

It is believed that 90 percent of smuggled weapons go to Mexico's four national drug cartels -- Sinaloa, Gulf, Tijuana and Juarez. As a result, these are better armed and more technologically advanced than the law enforcement agencies, said David Robillard, head of Kroll operations in Mexico.

Drug violence is also spilling across the border, with numerous cases of kidnappings for ransom and extortion reported in U.S. border states.

Kroll expects that the escalating war will also impose high costs for foreign companies operating in Mexico, who will have to invest additional resources to protect personnel and infrastructure.

``Virtually everybody today in Mexico is being directly or indirectly affected by security issues,'' said Robillard. ``More than 6,000 lives have been lost to cartel violence last year.''

Mexico's drug trafficking problem dates back to the 1980s but became more apparent after President Felipe Calderón took over in 2006 and declared a war on drugs. Since then, Mexico looks dangerously like Colombia's a decade ago, said Robillard.

The country is facing many of the same challenges Bogotá faced in 2000, he said, but it has good chances of succeeding in quashing the violence and defeating the powerful cartels, which generate between $25 and $40 billion a year and use part of it to corrupt law enforcement officials and government institutions.

Luis Enrique Mercado, a congressman for Calderón's PAN party agreed with Robillard that Mexico is looking more and more like Colombia at the peak of its fight against drug trafficking and that the challenges facing the government will take time to resolve.

``Yes, Mexico is getting `Colombianized'. Let's expect that we'll have the same capacity as Colombia to defeat the problem,'' he said.

Robillard cited the pervasiveness of extortion and kidnapping, the high level of sophistication of the weapons acquired by the cartels, and the impressive monetary power of the Mexican cartels as similarities with Colombia's war at the beginning of this decade.

``One thing in Mexico's favor, however, is that we don't have guerrillas. ... That makes the job easier,'' he said in an interview with The Miami Herald after his presentation.

A survey by the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico among its members showed that 75 percent of respondents felt that the insecurity had already had an impact on their businesses -- especially in the northwest region of the country. Fifty-seven percent said their companies planned to increase their security budget within the next two years.

U.S. businesses at risk of becoming targets of Mexican drug cartels - Americas - MiamiHerald.com

The big business of marijuana

From CNN’s Jeanne Meserve - And all this week we’re breaking down America’s drug addiction and examining how it’s helping fuel the violence spilling over the border. Today we’re looking at the 8.5 billion dollar business being made off marijuana. How do you stop the supply when there’s such a massive demand?



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Mexican Congress debates legalizing marijuana

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress opened a three-day debate Monday on the merits of legalizing marijuana for personal use, a policy backed by three former Latin American presidents who warned that a crackdown on drug cartels is not working.

Although President Felipe Calderon has opposed the idea, the unprecedented forum shows legalizing marijuana is gaining support in Mexico amid brutal drug violence.

Such a measure would be sure to strain relations with the United States at a time when the two countries are stepping up cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. The congressional debate — open to academics, experts and government officials — ends a day before President Barack Obama arrives in Mexico for talks on the drug war.

Proponents had a boost in February when three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries to consider legalizing the drug to undermine a major source of income for cartels.

The congressional discussion takes on a subject "that had been taboo" in our country, said opposition lawmaker Javier Gonzalez, adding that his Democratic Revolution Party supports legalizing personal marijuana consumption.

"What we don't want is to criminalize youths for consuming or possessing marijuana," he said.

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Drug War Mayhem in Mexico -- The Public Is Sick of It

With Drug-trafficking deaths skyrocketing by more than 117 percent in 2008, the Mexican president's drug policies are extremely unpopular.

Mexico City - Five thousand, three hundred, and seventy-six people have been killed in Mexico's drug war so far this year, double the number from last year and more than all the US troops killed in Iraq.Is this what victory looks like?
That's the question Mexico is grappling with two years after President Felipe Calderón took office announcing a massive military effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations.
Thursday marks two years since Mr. Calderón announced "Operation Michoacán," the first of a sustained series of high-profile deployments of soldiers across the country.
Since then, federal authorities have disarmed scores of police departments, boasted of bundles of cash and caches of weapons confiscated, and heralded arrests of some of the highest-profile traffickers as proof of success.
But the effort's first year, 2007, also turned out to be the nation's deadliest in modern history; and the death toll for 2008 has, as of Dec. 2, far exceeded that, spiking by 117 percent, according to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora. Authorities at the highest ranks have been arrested for colluding with traffickers, and a strategy that has been a political boon could turn into a liability for Calderón in next year's mid-term elections.
"The major gains are not what Calderon has gotten, but what he has avoided," says Jorge Chabat, an expert in drug trafficking in Mexico City. Police stations and small towns, for example, are no longer in the hands of drug traffickers, but he says that has come at a high price.

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