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When Mexican President Felipe Calder n sent his army after thecountry s powerful drug cartels six years ago, we all understoodthe rationales. For starters, Calder n had won the 2006presidential election by a razor-thin margin, about half apercentage point, and he needed to establish a firmer presence inLos Pinos, the Mexico City presidential residence, with a bold act of authority. Takingon the cartels, whose ghastly violence was overrunning the northernborder and numerous large cities, was certainly a legitimate move.So was deploying 50,000 of Mexico s troops instead of relying onits cops: Calder n realized that Mexican police were toohopelessly corrupt and incompetent to do the job. But if Calder n s call was gutsy, much of it was as ill conceivedas taking a baseball bat to a hornet s nest without knowing whatyou re going to do with the hornets. Granted, the military campaign has captured or killed some key drugcapos and made some impressive drug busts. But the cartels aren tthat much weaker than they were six years ago — narcos thismonth torched the warehouses of one of Mexico's largestfood-and-beverage companies, and this week they dropped leafletsfrom planes over Sinaloa state condemning the government —and in the meantime some 50,000 Mexicans have been murdered,including 49 decapitated victims recently dumped on a northernhighway. While putting soldiers on the streets might have providedsome short-term relief, the fact remains that in the long run,soldiers make lousy antidrug agents — armies don t bringdown organized crime, professional police do — and the longerthey re kept in that role, the more problems you re going tohave. Not surprisingly, the Mexican military has a lot of problems rightnow. The monstrous cartels themselves are certainly to blame forMexico s narcohorrors. But groups like the New York City basedHuman Rights Watch have also accused the military of widespreaddrug-war abuses, including the torture, disappearance or killing ofhundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians. On top of that, inMay, some of the military s top brass were arrested —including an army general who until 2008 had been the No. 2official in the Defense Ministry — apparently for being inthe pocket of one of Mexico s leading drug-traffickingorganizations, the Beltran-Leyva cartel. The arrested men — army General Tom s Angeles and threeother high-ranking officers — deny the charge. Many Mexicansare asking whether politics played a role in their detentions sinceAngeles, who had hoped to become Mexico s Defense Secretary, isreportedly a critic of Calder n s drug-war strategy and is saidto favor the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party(PRI), Enrique Pe a Nieto, who holds a large lead in voter pollsover the candidate of Calder n s National Action Party (PAN) forthe July 1 presidential election. (Mexico s Attorney General hasadamantly denied any political impetus.) Skeptics also say much ofthe evidence against Angeles that has been reported so far smacksof hearsay. Some in the Mexican media suggest the arrests are partof a power struggle inside the insulated armed forces. Others sayCalder n is on the level when he insists, as he did this month,that his government simply won t tolerate illegal acts." Whatever the reasons, it s hardly unprecedented to see a topMexican military leader get collared for narcocorruption. Thisyear, in fact, marks the 15th anniversary of one of the mostshocking cases — the arrest (and later the conviction) ofnone other than Mexico s then drug czar, army General Jes sGuti rrez Rebollo, for being in the pay of Mexico s top drug lordat the time, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. That crisis prompted thenPresident Ernesto Zedillo to outright scrap Mexico s federaldrug-interdiction agency and start all over again; and if thecharges against Angeles and the other officers are true, Mexicansare bound to experience a similar sinking feeling. Now, as then, the only real remedy is to phase out Mexico'sreliance on the military and develop genuinely professional,investigative police forces. But that s a harder task than simplycalling out the cavalry — and Mexico, despite Calder n sefforts to also push police and judicial reform through Congress , still doesn t look all that interested in tackling the hardertask. Fairly or not, the military arrests, especially if Angeles and theothers are found guilty, are for Mexicans a dismal punctuation markto the past six years — and possibly to Calder n s legacy.(By law he is limited to one six-year term.) Nor will they do muchto reassure an already skeptical Washington , which has committed — hesitantly — some $1.5 billionto Mexican-drug-war aid. At the same time, the arrests seem to vindicate Carlos Pascual, theformer U.S. ambassador to Mexico who was forced to resign last yearafter Calder n blew a fuse about WikiLeaked diplomatic cables thatshow Pascual casting doubts on the Mexican military s reliabilityin the drug war. One of Pascual's chief concerns was thebrass s commitment to taking down the Beltran-Leyva gang. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Tamper Evident Security Seals , Checkpoint Security Tag for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Retractable ID Badge Reels.
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