Smoke and Mirrors: Drug Cartels and the State

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/12/mexico_military_drug_cartels_ayotzinapa_ministry

The GOP is screaming once again about the border. Biden visited El Paso on his way to a North American Summit meeting in Mexico City. The Right has been howling for months about his failure to visit the actual border. So then when he shows up they go on the attack.

'How dare he!'

'It was a mere photo-op!'

Undoubtedly this is the case. This is what politicians do. Here's the question. If Biden had showed up and took a list of demands made by the governors of Florida and Texas and agreed to meet all their demands, what would they say?

If they wanted ten million, and he gave them twenty, what then? If they want ten thousand troops and agents, and he agreed to give them fifteen, what then?

If he gave them everything they wanted and more, would they say, 'Wow, thanks president Biden. We really appreciate it. Biden is serious about the border.'

Of course not. The notion is absurd. There's nothing he could do that would gain or earn their respect and acknowledgement, let alone their praise. So do you think he's even going to try?

So we can dispense with all the grandstanding and rhetoric. It's just political fakery. Both parties do it. They're all deceitful people.

What about the fentanyl?

This too makes me chuckle. First of all, the fentanyl crisis vis-à-vis Mexico and China is the result of a mass addiction generated by Western-based pharmaceutical companies, and a large segment of the US population that is effectively defeated and broken. Greed, exploitation, disregard for human life, and deep corruption within congress (including Republicans like Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn), the regulatory bodies, and the medical profession created a climate in which opioid use exploded, especially in poor and working class circles.

Finally after years of abuse and aggressive campaigning, these loopholes (or more honestly floodgates) were closed but the demand remains and so people have turned to the street. The demand is there and as any good capitalist will argue, that generates supply.

In the past the Right had little sympathy for drug users. The thousands dying from fentanyl overdoses are buying the stuff on the black market, on the street, in bars, parking lots, and the like. The previous generation of conservatives more or less shrugged their shoulders and basically said these people get what they deserve. What do you expect buying pills and drugs off street pushers? They had no sympathy and in fact for a long time it was argued that the way to stop drugs was to destroy the demand. You can go after the supply lines south of the border, but the most effective strategy was to go after the user and destroy the demand. The supply (it followed) would then go elsewhere and sell their products someplace else.

It's never worked very well as some have been forced to admit. The draconian ramifications are too ugly and reverberate throughout society – generating a host of additional problems.

But now to listen to Republicans whine about all the poor people overdosing on fentanyl – it's just too much. These people are not serious. It's a political ploy and nothing more.

In fact the entire war on drugs is a sham. As the article linked above indicates, the Mexican government works with these people and it's no different when it comes to the United States. One is immediately reminded of the movie Sicario in which it is eventually revealed that the CIA is working with some cartels at the expense of others. They can't stop it, they simply try to manage it. But worse, it's not clear to me that they even want to stop it. There's too much money it. There's the money related to sales that gets funneled into the US financial system. Where it goes from there is anyone's guess. But it has been demonstrated that millions and in fact billions of dollars in drug profits make their way through the financial system. The industry is too big to fail.

Additionally, there is a massive infrastructure associated with combating drugs. If the flow of drugs stopped it would be catastrophic for the economy as not only banking benefits but the massive bureaucracies and infrastructures associated with the war on drugs rely on the trade. From law enforcement to the military, to the industries that support these efforts, to the courts and prison system, there are a lot of people cashing in on this largely bogus war.

It's real enough if you get caught and I don't doubt that there are many prosecutors and border agents that are sincere – even crusading in their ethos. But on a macro level it's just a big game and most of the veteran law enforcement people, and those involved on the judicial end will openly admit it. But in light of the thousands of deaths, whole societies turned on their heads, and all the suffering and corruption – few have the integrity to blow the whistle and walk away. As I saw in the military, there are many people that don't want to know, don't want to see, don't want to ask about what's happening and why. They keep their heads down and remain focused on their real goal – a pension.

The situation with the drug war is ever dynamic – probably only slightly more volatile than the power struggles in the political and business worlds. There are ambitions and betrayals, plots, and reversals. There are market considerations, alliances, and wars. Hollywood has waded into these waters on many occasions and tried to show how everything relates to everything else. But it doesn't matter because for most people, rational thinking doesn't come into play. It's emotions that rule and these are easily manipulated, especially in our present day.

The blame is placed on the Mexicans and the Chinese, or whoever happens to be convenient.

At the end of the day, people are responsible for their own actions. Some have sympathetic stories and some don't. State and business actors pursue their own interests and with the level of profits available in the drugs trade – great corruption is the result. It cannot be otherwise.

The Right can scream about fentanyl and the border but the truth of the matter is this – the American state is part of the machine and it's a bipartisan project that includes Wall Street. The people on the 'front line' are dupes, expendables being used.  Time and time again law enforcement investigators have argued that the deeper they go into investigations they inevitably find the hand of the US government and the intelligence agencies. There's too much money to be made and when you have organisations like the CIA trying to fund projects and proxy wars 'off the books' the temptation of drug money is simply too great. The profit margins are too high.

The Right can howl about human trafficking and try to make a moral case about this, but this is just to provide a veneer to the real issues that motivate the electorate. These issues are in some cases race related and in others it's economic. There are others who embrace elaborate and at times outlandish conspiracies about population replacement and the like which again are rooted in race and often particularly vile and tribal forms of nationalism.

I don't believe the Right cares about trafficking. This is simply a means to dress up their case. The same is true with regard to the infiltration of drugs. Some may have genuine concerns. If they do and would bother to look into the matter, they would come away with a very different set of concerns.

And this corruption is not limited to the US border with Mexico. It all fits a pattern we've seen since the time of World War II. Entire libraries could be filled outlining the way in which modern states like the US work with and alongside drug cartels and organised crime. There's just too much money it and too much demand. If the smugglers and cartel people are evil, the ones chasing them are only slightly less so, and often completely self-deceived about who they are and what they're doing.

They work with these people and when the time comes, the chiefs are taken out, killed or thrown in prison, and everything flips over into the hands of another group. Clear the game board, shuffle the deck, and start over. It's that simple.

I have to believe there are people in the congress who know this but as the effects of drugs are so palpable and continue to wreak havoc on society they can (in a purely cynical fashion) make such demagogic appeals as it resonates with the public who for the most part (despite the movies and the many years of exposés and news reports) still don't understand what is happening or why.

See also:

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2015/12/arms-dealers-and-business-of-war.html

http://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-wasting-of-colombia-profiting-from.html

http://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2014/01/drug-wars-allies-and-enemies-in-game.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-karzai-connection-afghanistan-cia.html

http://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/10/peering-into-labyrinth-frontlines-guns.html