By: Annette Brinckerhoff
Joaquin Guzmán, the most notorious Mexican cartel leader, escaped from a Mexican maximum security prison, for the second time, on Sunday. He managed his escape through a tunnel which extended from underneath a shower to a recently built house about a mile away from the prison. Construction at the prison, building a new pipes system, made the preparation for the getaway easy to camouflage in the midst of the large scale construction project.
This is the second time Guzmán, who goes by “El Chapo” has been incarcerated, and the second time he’s escaped.
Guzmán’s drug ring, the Sinaloa Cartel, is the most powerful in Mexico and is responsible for most of the heroin and marijuana coming into the United States from Mexico. His arrest did very little to hinder their operations as Guzmaán continued to run the operation from inside his cell.
Guzmán was captured initially by Mexican forces using the help of American intelligence. Mexican and American officials have been working together to dismantle the drug networks that have woven themselves into Mexican society and politics.
In the past year the Mexican administration has been put under a lot of pressure to crack down on drug rings after politician and former Iguala Mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, was arrested and charged with ordering the murder of 43 students. This international scandal provided a window into Mexico’s incredibly corrupt and tainted internal politics.
The DEA has spent $15 billion on the war on drugs and has achieved very little progress. Drug usage and overdose statistics are rising as jails are filled up with non-violent drug offenders. The biggest impact the war on drugs has had is on vulnerable youth with little prospects, who’s lives have now been defined by a petty marijuana possession charge on their permanent criminal records. This is a problem that the Obama administration has recognized and is attempting to counteract by granting clemency to those who fit the criteria. So far about 50 people have been set free, but in that time their cells have been filled with more petty offenders.
The two main problems with the war on drugs is that it is not tackling the problem on the ground, which is corrupt local politics. And the DEA’s McCarthyist paradigm has made it unable to analyze the nuances of drug related issues.
One of the reasons why it was so hard to catch El Chapo was because no one was willing to come forward with information on his movements. This is because he has become a sort of Robin Hood figure. As someone who builds schools, donates to churches, and provides a sort of security system for the community El Chapo has melded the fates of his cartel and the local community. He filled a vacuum that corruption left and then used that corruption to his benefit. Now Mexico’s publicly elected and appointed officials are highly connected to the cartels, further driving the cycle of corruption. Breaking the chain must be a priority of the DEA in order to undermine the cartels and shift the local narrative to one that reflects the negative, violent aspects of drug rings. If the U.S. can pressure and incentivize the highest levels of Mexican government to crack down on corruption in a practical way, we will see a change in the structure of the cartels.
On the other side of the border, the DEA needs to debilitate cartels by legalizing substances such as marijuana and treat drug addiction as a mental health problem and not as a crime. The two biggest exports of the Sinaloa cartel are heroin and marijuana, with weed being its most popular. In the states which legalized it, the Sinaloa’s revenue dropped by up to 30%. A figure which would be crippling were it to be nation wide. Cartels are using this relatively harmless (compared to substances that are legal) drug to fund a significant part of their criminal organization. Legalization, taxation, and regulation are components of a policy which would cripple their finances.
Beginning in the 80s politicians have won their seats by spewing out anti-drug rhetoric. When implemented, the results of such a stance were skyrocketing incarceration rates, but not for everyone. Low income minorities became particularly vulnerable. I’m not saying that these people were not at fault for consuming or dealing drugs. What they did was against the law and should be addressed, but the question is how. A heroin addict or dealer getting picked up off the street and thrown in jail is going to come out and continue using or dealing. Only this time they will have stronger skills and developed a network of other criminals.
As the headlines run Guzmán’s escape, and Mexican and U.S. officials scramble for a response, they should take a moment to evaluate their strategy so far. Overdoses, crime, and violence have all been on the rise since the War on Drugs was declared suggesting that the current system is not working. What needs to be implemented is a strategy which deals with the social problems on the ground in Mexico, as well as how we deal with the victims of drug abuse in the United States.