| | |  Editorials | Opinions | August 2008 
Mexico's Challenges Run Deep
 Tad Trueblood - The Spectrum
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 |  | Even though American drug use is certainly a major contributing factor to the burgeoning narco-insurgency, it is not a foundational cause of Mexico's ills. Other, deeper factors shape the unsteady foundations of our southern neighbor. |  | | | |
Last week's column explored the issue of guns smuggled from the United States into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. As drugs flow north, thousands of guns flow south (see www.thiscouldgetinteresting.com). Clearly, American law enforcement should try to reduce that flow, but I challenge the premise in many media reports that the U.S. is fueling the drug wars. Where the criminals buy weapons is not one of Mexico's fundamental problems.
On the other hand, demand from all across the United States for illegal drugs is, indeed, a huge problem fueling many others in Mexico (such as demand for guns). It is an American shame. If only "casual" American drug users understood the deadly effects their choices have all down the line in Mexico's $25 billion-a-year narco-trafficking industry.
But even though American drug use is certainly a major contributing factor to the burgeoning narco-insurgency, it is not a foundational cause of Mexico's ills. Other, deeper factors shape the unsteady foundations of our southern neighbor.
Mexico's social structure has always been deeply stratified, with Indian and lower-caste mestizo populations essentially stuck at the bottom of the economic pyramid with little hope of rising. For centuries, an essentially feudal system prevailed, with a noble class tracing roots back to Spain, supported by the peasant masses. While reforms have occurred, a layered class system is still very strong in Mexico.
One of the legacies of that structure is corruption at every level, the leftovers of the old patronage system. Workers and villagers on a landowner's estate traditionally passed goods up the chain while expecting protection and favors from the patron. Today, getting a building permit, a safety inspection, a business license, applying for a government job or accomplishing any number of daily transactions requires this traditional exchange of "favors." The ultimate costs in wasted effort, stifled initiative and dissolution is huge.
Likewise, the bureaucracy inherent in Mexican government is a nearly impenetrable maze of forms, stamps and petty officials, each with the power to refuse or delay indefinitely. This allows leaders more "favors" (jobs) to dispense to supporters and allows more opportunity for supporters to collect their own share of graft. The same dynamic appears in the Mexican private sector, in bloated corporate structures that produce little value.
This all creates a chronically weak economic system. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ran a centrally planned economy for 70 years. Even though President Calderon (from the conservative National Action Party) is pushing reforms, Mexico still has a lumbering state-run economy unable to adjust to changing markets or provide a decent livelihood for most citizens. Poor economic performance goes a long way toward explaining mass migration of workers to the U.S. and the parallel "black economy" of the drug underworld.
Mexican government officials and academics, like so many in Latin America, are keen to kick blame for all of their society's problems across the northern border. But their toughest challenges weren't made in America. The sooner Mexican leaders acknowledge that, and their supporters accept it, the sooner Mexico can begin to heal itself.
Tad Trueblood has more than 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and the national security community. He blogs at www.thiscouldgetinteresting.com. |
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