Whack-a-mole Drug War and U.S. - Mexico Relations: Kill the Messenger

Mexican political analyst Denise Dresser comments on President Calderon's success in getting rid of U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual. (Unfortunately, La Reforma only allows subscribers to access to the full article)

Kill the Messenger

Column by Denise Dresser,

La Reforma, Mar. 21, 2011

Felipe Calderón finally got what he wanted. Kill the messenger. Exile the ambassador. Behead the diplomat. Get the resignation of Carlos Pascual and embarrass the President of the U.S. because the ambassador noted the negative consequences of the war. By disturbing the Army and showing that - sometimes - it does not act with efficiency or speed. For pointing out the internal fissures of the Mexican state security agencies. For commenting on the blandness of the PAN candidates for the presidency and how Calderón does not always know what to do to strengthen his own position and that of his party. To tell the truth even if it hurts to admit it. Truth that the president does not want to face, the Army did not want to hear, the Public Security Secretariat prefers to makeup, the National Action Party would prefer not be true.

Truth is recalcitrant. It shows up day after day despite the number of bosses arrested, the number of weapons recorded, the amount of cocaine seized. Mexico is not winning the war against drug trafficking and organized crime. The truth is neither more nor less. The forced resignation of U.S. ambassador cannot hide the 36 thousand dead, the rise in drug abuse, escalating foreclosures, the increase in abductions, increased murders, the intransigence of impunity. And we repeat that violence is an inevitable consequence when, as noted by Eduardo Guerrero’s splendid articles in the magazine Nexos, it should not have been. It reminds us that it is not only capos who are butchering each other, when in fact there are executions beyond the world of drug trafficking. And we are urged to denounce the bad guys, when 98.5 percent of crimes in the country are never resolved.