Big Sis Can’t Quit the Drug War

By Robert Beckhusen

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano at a 2009 press conference, with bales of marijuana in the foreground. Photo: Denis Poroy/AP

Three years ago, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the war on drugs “had not worked” — and admitted that the American appetite for narcotics “fuels the drug trade.” But now Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would like to take that all back. It’s full steam ahead for the drug war.
“‘Is the drug war a failure and are we going to change our strategy?’ I would not agree with the premise that the drug war is a failure,” Napolitano said Monday after a meeting with Alejandro Poire, Mexico’s interior minister and top drug warrior. “I would say however that it is a continuing effort, to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs,” she added.

Few U.S. officials will object to defending the drug war on its merits, and Napolitano’s statement does not necessarily prelude joint responsibility for drug trafficking — a key part of the administration’s post-2008 shift in tone. Napolitano also called for working “bi-nationally, but in a regional way.” What’s remarkable, though, is the abrupt shift backwards at a time when Mexico and Central America are increasingly swamped by violent and militarized cartels.
Drug smuggling into the U.S. also shows no sign of slowing down, and these countries’ wars — fought by proxy with billions in U.S. aid — is making little progress toward dismantling those cartels or reducing their influence over swathes of territory.

In a sense, Napolitano is backtracking. “Clinton’s candor about the failures within U.S. policy was well received in Latin America and gave the new administration some additional credibility to work with partners in the region on combating organized crime and illicit trafficking,” wrote James Bosworth, a Latin America security analyst based in Nicaragua. According to Bosworth, Latin American governments are “hoping the U.S. is willing to look at the issue strategically and make adjustments.”
After all, many of these Latin American governments are dealing with a security threat in large part created by U.S. demand for drugs — and fought by criminal and insurgent armies which profit from trafficking. These cartels, like Mexico’s Zetas, are also spreading into neighboring countries like Guatemala.
Last week, the presidents of Colombia and Mexico were joined by President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala (a former military officer) in calling for drug decriminalization by the United States. Pérez, meanwhile, said Guatemala is “not doing what the United States says, we are doing what we have to do” — promising to decriminalize drugs while enforcing a mano dura, or “iron fist” approach to crime.
That may be where the war on drugs is heading outside the United States — fewer (if any) penalties for possession or consumption of drugs, but more efforts at cracking down on violence. The Mexican government, meanwhile, is likely to continue efforts to capture drug lords like Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Napolitano also compared the hunt for El Chapo to the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden. ”And you know what happened there,” Napolitano said. “I’m not suggesting the same thing would happen with Guzman but I am suggesting that we are persistent when it comes to wrongdoers and those who do harm in both of our countries.”
A cross-border raid, basically. But the Mexican government might not be comfortable with stealth helicopters loaded with Navy SEALs flying around the mountains of Durango. At least not yet.