the June 25 column<\/a>. \u201cTwenty-one of the 37 individuals on Mexico\u2019s most wanted list have either been apprehended or killed. Of the five original cartels, two of them, the Juarez Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel, are mere shadows of their once powerful selves.\u201d<\/p>\nAinslie, who teaches as the University of Texas-Austin, is the author of a forthcoming book about the drug war and has spent two years, according to the column, \u201cexploring the impact of the violence on Ciudad Juarez, as well as interviewing Mexican policymakers, including several current and former members of President Felipe Calder\u00f3n\u2019s security cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Ainslie found:<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a series of visits to Ciudad Juarez, the war\u2019s epicenter, and interviews with federal law enforcement and intelligence officials in Mexico City, I see convincing evidence that the government has dramatically weakened the drug cartels, an essential step if the country is to restore peace,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
But, he wrote, Mexico has another huge problem. While the \u201cdecimation of the cartels, the strengthening of federal law enforcement institutions, and Mexico\u2019s increasing democratization bode well for Mexico\u2019s future,\u201d the successful battle against the cartels hasn\u2019t done much to reduce the violence that plagues Mexico.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the majority of deaths are caused by \u201cgang-on-gang disputes related to the local retail drug business,\u201d he wrote, adding that the fracturing of the cartels has \u201cresulted in a proliferation of criminal bands engaging in ordinary street crime, including the lucrative kidnapping and extortion business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mexican government is clearly winning the cartel war; it is local crime that has become the country\u2019s biggest challenge,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He claimed it will remain that way until state and local law enforcement agencies are strengthened, the nation\u2019s judiciary is reformed and social conditions improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contrary to popular belief, the Mexican government is \u201cgaining the upper hand in a drug war that has turned much of the border region and parts of interior Mexico into war zones,\u201d an expert on the topic asserts in a column published by the Houston Chronicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,195],"class_list":["post-30267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-mexicos-drug-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}