Mexico: Calderon says US demand driving Mexican Drug Wars

In an interview on the BBC TV show HardTalk, President Calderon said that so long as the US is the world's number one consumer of illicit drugs, the Mexican Drug Wars will continue.

While the US demand does drive the trafficking of illicit drugs, it is only part of the motivation behind these drug wars.

Another variable in this mess is the inability of the Mexican State's institutions to effectively police its national territory, and the host of HardTalk brings this up. Clearly, the drug cartels at some point made the decision to begin these wars with the idea that they could win them and in the end enjoy the spoils of war. This decision presupposes that they will be able to act with a certain degree of impunity due to a weak Mexican state. Add on top of that the inexperience the Mexican military has in regular police operations, the difficulty in co-ordinating regular police activities caused by the federal structure of their state, and the relative ease with which the regular forces of each institution can be corrupted by drug money, and the domestic aspect becomes apparent.

It is always easy to blame the US for the problems of the Latin American countries. But there comes a point when their politicians have to take on responsibility for the persistent state of societal turmoil, rejecting the idea that their fortunes are simply tied up in the whims of the Colossus of the North.