http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25093.htm

Hillary's Drug War:

"It's Just Strengthening the Biggest Cartel"

By Mike Whitney

March 27, 2010 "Information Clearing House" - -Get a load of this:

[embedded links and/or video at url above]

Al Jazeera has put together a 3-minute video which asks whether the Mexican
government is "favoring" the country's most powerful drug gang, the Sinoloa Cartel.
After watching the video, you'll wonder who's really running the country? Can one
gang really have this much power? And what does it say about US policy towards
Mexico; is the financial aid really improving security or just making matters worse?

Despite the abysmal media coverage, there's a full-blown war going on just South of
the border in Cuidad Juarez. Investigators believe that most of the killings are the
result of a turf war between the Sinoloa cartel and a rival gang, "La Linea".
According to Al Jazeera, "The Sinoloa Federation is responsible for 45 percent of the
drug trade in Mexico", but the government is only going after the small fish. Why?
And, why hasn't Obama asked his "drug fighting" partner, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon, what the heck is going on?

First, a little background: The Sinaloa cartel, is headed by the country's most famous
druglord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Here's a clip from AOL News:

"El Chapo -- "Shorty" in Mexican slang -- controls the Sinaloa cartel, named for the
northern Mexican state from which many of the country's drug lords hail. Guzman,
who is 5 feet 6 inches tall, has sought refuge in Sinaloa's mountainous terrain along
the Gulf of California, paying off Mexican law enforcement authorities and terrorizing
Mexican citizens, according to experts and congressional testimony from the U.S.
Department of Justice. His success at staying at large has led some experts to
suggest that Guzman's influence extends high into the Mexican police and
government.

His past is part of his legend. Arrested in Guatemala in 1993 for drug smuggling and
homicide, Guzman, 52, escaped from a maximum-security prison in Mexico in 2001
by sneaking out in a laundry cart. Since then, he has amassed a fortune of more
than $1 billion by trafficking cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines to the U.S.

Guzman's Sinaloa cartel has been engaged for several years in a bloody battle with
other traffickers over lucrative smuggling routes into the U.S. from Ciudad Juárez,
across the border from El Paso, Texas. The drug war there has claimed the lives of
380 people so far this year, according to Spanish news agency Efe, including 15
teenagers who were gunned down last month." (AOL News)

So "El Chapo" is not a guy you want to mess with. But what sort influence does he
have on the government? That's what the Obama team needs to know. Is the
Calderon administration really in bed with the biggest drug kingpin in Mexico? And, if
not, then why does Calderon keep ducking the questions? He needs to come clean so
people have confidence in the policy.

Keep in mind, that the US is providing $1.6 billion in aid to Mexico under the terms of
the Merida Initiative, which was signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush and his
counterpart, Calderon. But no one really knows how the money is being spent,
because there's no accountability. Corruption in Mexico is so widespread, that the
money is probably ending up in the hands of the very people the Obama
administration wants to put behind bars. Does that sound far-fetched? Then take a
look at this story in the Los Angeles Times:

"When Mexico and the United States were entering a landmark free trade agreement
16 years ago, one thing was clear: Mexican farmers would initially find it difficult to
compete with heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural products. The solution: Mexico
created a special fund to dole out cash to the poorest and smallest farmers.

Somewhere along the way, something went wrong. Today, the fund -- far from
helping the neediest -- is providing large financial subsidies to the families of
notorious drug traffickers and several senior government officials, including the
agriculture minister.

Revelations of how and to whom the money is being distributed have led to a spasm
of demands from legislators to change the system. But, as with most examples of
colossal corruption in Mexico, it is unlikely that the program will be overhauled.

Its failure has driven tens of thousands of subsistence farmers to ruin and
encouraged the planting of illegal crops, such as marijuana and opium poppy, on
vast tracts of farmland, experts and officials say.

Under the program, known as Procampo, an estimated $1.3 billion was given last
year to 2.7 million farmers. The allotment is about $74 to $100 per 2.5 acres. But,
according to several academic studies, as much as 80% of the money went to just
20% of the registered farmers.

Among the most eyebrow-raising recipients were three siblings of billionaire drug lord
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, and the brother of
Guzman's onetime partner, Arturo Beltran Leyva". ("Mexico farm subsidies are going
astray", Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times)

The bottom line, is that no one really knows whether US drug war funding is helping
to achieve the stated security goals or not. Most likely, it's just money down a rathole.
But that doesn't seem to bother the Obama administration. They're determined to
stick with the same failed Bush policy to the bitter end. Case in point: Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton traipsed off to Mexico just this week to reaffirm the
administration's commitment to the Merida Initiative.

Clinton was flanked on her trip by a high-powered delegation which included
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano;
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Dennis C. Blair, the
director of national intelligence. In other words, THE HEADS OF THE ENTIRE US
NATIONAL SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT were gathered in Mexico to address the
escalating violence in Juarez. Clearly, the administration takes the issue seriously.

As Napolitano noted, “You rarely see this kind of meeting with this kind of array of
Cabinet officials on both sides.”

Indeed. The truth is, Washington elites now believe that Mexico is on its way to
becoming a "failed state" and they're scared sh**less. They think that--when the oil
fields run dry--the violence and anarchy will spill across the border and spread like
wildfire. That's why the administration's response has been so extreme--they hoped
that armored vehicles and checkpoints would send the dealers running for the hills.
But they were wrong; the fighting only intensified. So, now, the White House is
changing its approach and adding social programs and "institution building" to its
military strategy.

"We are expanding the Merida Initiative beyond what it was traditionally considered
to be, because it is not just about security, but about institution-building,” Secretary
Clinton said. “It is about reaching out to and including communities and civil society,
and working together to spur social and economic development.”

It's a step in the right direction, but not nearly enough. Clinton's program is just a
rehash of the same stale security-oriented bunkum. She might as well call it "Bush 2"
for all the difference it will make. Yes, the new Plan Mexico will provide $300 million
for "social cohesion" and various poverty-fighting programs, but the fundamental
plan is the same which means its prospects for success are "slim to none." What
Clinton and Co. fail to understand, is that their efforts are actually strengthening the
biggest cartels by wiping out the smaller gangs. That just puts the drug trade in the
hands of people who are more competent and politically-connected. It's a losing
strategy. Expect Ms. Clinton to be shocked when she finally figures it all out.

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