La política exterior antinarcóticos de los Estados Unidos en la era neoconservadora y su impacto en la consolidación de la democracia y el estado de derecho en México

Abstract

Puritan ethics grew strong roots in the society of the United States. Towards the end of the XIX century a multitude of reformist societies spawned, each one looking to morally mold persons trapped by any tutelary demons. This brought on, in the early XX century, the start of the Prohibitionist era. The rise of opium use in Philippines and wishing to ingratiate itself to China, in 1909, the United States promoted the international outlawing of drugs. Its efforts succeeded in the Hague Conference in 1914. Drug prohibition, since 1914, provoked a strong impact in the American subcontinent, where the main areas of drug producing plants are grown. To enforce the Harrison Act provisions, American pressures forced many governments of these countries to exceed their constitutional prerogatives. In South America, farming communities were harassed and persecuted because they cultivated coca leaves, an ancestral practice. In Mexico’s case, the U.S. prohibitionist policies generated, on the one hand, corruption and, on the other, an unbridled repression that contributed to uphold the post-revolutionary regime for more than seventy years. The Mexican army, through its generals, governed Mexico for almost thirty years after the Revolution. The enormous wealth that illegal drugs gave its dealers provoked, from the beginning, the contamination of the army since its personnel held local power, thus being in the ideal place to negotiate and be bribed. When national power went to civilians and the army was asked, since 1947, to fight drugs many of its generals had already grown rich covering up or promoting the production and distribution of drugs. The application of U.S. drug prohibitionist policies has generated in Mexico, atrophy in the development of its social and judicial institutions. An agreement was reached, between the military and civilians, to share in the drug business. When, in the seventies, opposing political forces demanded more justice and democracy, the clique already formed strengthened their ties and began a ferocious governmental repression. The United States, leaning on its Cold War logic, covered up these strikes against democracy and the rule of law. In order to avoid, that in countries like Mexico there should rise governments, with popular and nationalistic roots that would challenge their imperialist design masked as the war against drugs, they endorsed Mexican official electoral frauds and policies of extermination. Even though it had been going for a long time, these repressions grew in the eighties and keep going to the present. The case of the state of Sinaloa is a true mirror of this problem. There, nobody has come to power without the blessing of the lords of money and arms, who have used their power to buy consciences or intimidate dissidents. We take a deep immersion in the world of drug trafficking, turning ourselves into “silent witnesses” of their MO (Modus Operandi). Applying the qualitative research tools, we will study this reality in the same context it happens, then, we will interpret it according to its significance and the repercussions they have for all the people involved. To get a successful completion of our established objectives and confirm our hypotheses, we will make use of several research tools, like interviews, personal experiences, life stories, observations and historical texts, images and sounds. During this neoconservative period, United States Foreign Policy on Drugs undertook and advanced coercive measures in both drug production and drug transit territories. In the case of Mexico, the ever increasing deployment of police and military forces didn’t solve the problem. The cause of this failure was the collusion between the very political governing body and drug cartels, the United States searching to protect their political and economic interests in the region gave a very weak response. Drug Trafficking definitely survived and seriously affected the development of democracy and the instatement of a real Rule of the Law.