Enrique Krauze: Mexico is no failed state

Posted By Elizabeth Dickinson Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 11:24 AM Share

Unsettling violence in Mexico over the past year and a half has understandably provoked the question: is Mexico becoming a failed state? In our current edition of Foreign Policy, Sam Quinones argues that -- with more deaths due to drug violence than all U.S. deaths in Iraq since 2003 -- Mexico's chaos is spiraling out of control.

But in the New York Times today, top public intellectual Enrique Krauze says he is certain that Mexico will not fall apart. He decries the "failed" portrayal of his country:

While we bear responsibility for our problems, the caricature of Mexico being propagated in the United States only increases the despair on both sides of the Rio Grande. It is also profoundly hypocritical. America is the world's largest market for illegal narcotics. The United States is the source for the majority of the guns used in Mexico's drug cartel war, according to law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.

Back in October, Krauze told Foreign Policy much the same thing. While he worried about Mexico becoming a narco-state, he maintained that the government was in control:

There are many municipalities that are clearly under the rule of the drug traffickers, and that’s frightening because of course they kill the journalists and they corrupt everything. There is a danger [of Mexico becoming a narco state], but it’s still an embryo.

Read FP's the full interview with Krauze, as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent Michael Sanders, here.

EXPLORE:LATIN AMERICA, DRUGS & CRIME, MEXICO

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March 27, 2009

Mexico is already a Narco State

How is it that a rouge DEA agent could get the Mexican equivalent of the Joint Chief of staff (Mexican army) on tape indicting himself, and his subordinates in the drug trade, and the only result is America signs an agreement with the Mexican government that all future DEA operations will be vetted w/Mexican liason first? How is it this happens, no heads roll in Mexico, and Mexico is not a Narco State?

Lets not pull punches, the facts are the Mexican military is directly involved in trafficing drugs. Both direct, and indirect. Direct = leasing airfields to Columbian Cartels and providing protection and escort duty between Catels and Mexican gangs. Indirect = charging Mexican drug gangs protection money to allow them to operate, much like renting real estate.

So clearly...Mexico is already, a narco state.

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