I agree with the article except for the people turning on Pablo Escobar... Pablo Escobar's mistake was targeting politicians and their families to pressure for no extradition coupled with that fact that Pablo Escobar taxed and murdered his competitors AND his own business partners and associates. The then govt administration made a deal with the competing cartels and the networks whose leaders had been unjustifiably murdered by Escobar, the government and the DEA handed to other cartels intel. Great intel but useless to the DEA and the govt bc Pablo could not be touched. It took gansters to take down a gangster, they tortured, they murdered, basically authorized to do what ever it took to get rid of a danger to the politicians and their families. Had Escobar not kidnapped the family members of senators nor taxed and murdered others in the business for no good reason there is a good chance he would still be alive or would have lasted longer, after all, he proclaimed he would kill himself before being captured for extradition. The people loved him, he took them out of poverty. I was in Colombia the day Escobar was killed and people hit the streets in masses crying, fainting and in disbelief that Pablito had been killed. The underworld spits on his grave when his name is mentioned because he murdered to many people that despite being gangsters themselves had vasts networks that supported neighborhoods, local economies and so on....he was the devil but it was not the people, its was other billionaire gangsters with Intel from the DEA and Colombian Govt.... Hell, the cop that "killed" Escobar is going to prison if he is not already in for affiliation with Paramiliatary groups aka the cartels that emerged after Escobar....do the math... You cannot screw around with other bad guys nor high ranking politicians because the end will come sooner then it would have otherwise. The poverty in Mexico will keep trafficking alive and protected for ever and ever....Mexico will have to make a secret agreement to allow the most organized cartel to continue to operate in exchange for less violence and information that leads to the abolishment of the other cartels. Tough tough job but Mexico saw less violence when it was rumored that the govt favor one cartel over another.... Its billions of dollars in an economy that cannot provide for its entire population, its simple economics....Its the violence that needs to stop because trafficking will never stop.
The people of Mexico will never turn on the Cartels because they have money to share and bullets to spread. When a high ranking gangster is captured, in most cases he was ratted out by his enemies not by the people.
one last thing, if Mexico can increase its economy by 10 to 15 billion dollars annually then trafficking will be greatly reduced...we are not born wanting to be criminals but necessity drives us to it. Give a human being a choice between a good job and being part of an illegal network and we will in most cases chose the good job...all Mexico needs is 10 to 15 billion more in usd annually....
Indeed an "interesting article", as are the comments/analyses by Diego. Hardly a day goes by that someone in the states does not ask me if I feel safe, or if I feel in danger here in Cancun. My pat answer is that 99% of the time it is bad guys killing bad guys, aka turf wars, cops/military killing bad guys or bad guys killing bad cops and politicians. The other 1% is a risk that people assume all over the world for the most part. Thanks guys,
If the US gave that extra 10-15 billion dollars, I wonder how much of it would actually go where it was intended, and what percentage would be lost to corruption.
Here is part two.... Mexico Behind the Scenes: An Exclusive Interview with an Intelligence Operative – Part 2
