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89 Foreign Aff. 35 (2010)
The New Cocaine Cowboys - How to Defeat Mexico's Drug Cartels

handle is hein.journals/fora89 and id is 557 raw text is: The New Cocaine Cowboys How to Defeat Mexico's Drug Cartels Robert C. Bonner THE RECENT headlines from Mexico are disturbing: U.S. consular official gunned down in broad daylight; Rancher murdered by Mex- ican drug smuggler; Bomb tossed at U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo. This wave ofviolence is eerily reminiscent of the carnage that plagued Colombia 20 years ago, and it is getting Washington's attention. Mexico is in the throes of a battle against powerful drug cartels, the outcome of which will determine who controls the country's law enforcement, judicial, and political institutions. It will decide whether the state will destroy the cartels and put an end to the culture ofimpunity they have created. Mexico could become a first-world country one day, but it will never achieve that status until it breaks the grip these criminal organizations have over all levels of government and strengthens its law enforcement and judicial institutions. It cannot do one without doing the other. Destroying the drug cartels is not an impossible task. Two decades ago, Colombia was faced with a similar-and in many ways more daunting-struggle. In the early 199os, many Colombians, including police officers, judges, presidential candidates, and journalists, were assassinated by the most powerful and fearsome drug-trafficking organ- izations the world has ever seen: the Cali and Medellin cartels. Yet ROBERT C. B ON N ER is Senior Principal of the Sentinel HS Group. He was Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 1990 to 1993 and Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2001 to 2005. [351

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