Trump Doesn't Care About Drug Trafficking

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat 

It has become common to hear that, for Trump to be on favorable terms with Mexico, we must attack drug trafficking. Controlling organized crime, it is said, is Trump’s main objective.

The problem with these assertions is that, while they align with Trump’s rhetoric, they don’t match his actions. What Trump’s actions reveal is that the US president doesn’t care about drug trafficking.

Let’s start with the obvious. If Trump truly wanted to destroy organized crime and reduce fentanyl overdose deaths, he would start by fighting within the main stronghold of global drug trafficking and its main source of income: the United States itself.

Not only is this not happening, but several Trump policies are openly geared in the opposite direction.

Trump has facilitated the sale of weapons within the United States (many of which end up in the hands of drug traffickers), has cut billions of dollars from state health services budgets (reducing addiction treatment), has reduced housing support for homeless people (which is expected to further increase addictions), and, in the height of cynicism, has pardoned convicted drug traffickers (such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández). 

Trump’s true interest, as it was in Venezuela and as it is in almost all his actions, is economic.

Drug trafficking is merely an excuse that Trump is using to extract all kinds of economic concessions from Mexico, from a more favorable negotiation of the USMCA to special favors for American industries or companies.

The drug trafficking excuse is perfect for Trump because the problem cannot be solved from Mexico. It doesn’t matter how much Mexico does. It doesn’t matter how many people it arrests or how many drugs it confiscates; drug trafficking will continue as long as the United States has a multi-million dollar market of captive consumers. Just yesterday, El País reported that a new Chapo has emerged in Sinaloa. Drug trafficking is, in Trumpian terms, the best bargaining chip Trump could have found. It’s an issue that will keep Mexico running in circles, constantly giving in without ever reaching a solution. It must be acknowledged that Trump’s idea of ​​finding and using this excuse is diabolically brilliant.

For all these reasons, it is urgent that Mexican negotiators stop making decisions based on what Trump says he wants and start making them based on what Trump reveals as his true preferences through his actions.

If the goal is for Trump to be on better terms with Mexico, the focus, rather than on security matters, should be on economic issues.

That is, Mexico should maintain certain visible actions against drug trafficking, but it should focus the majority of its resources and talent on developing a strategy that helps Trump fight his most desired economic battle: competing with China. To the extent that Trump sees Mexico as indispensable in waging this economic battle, Mexico will be protected against the volatility of the United States.

Sources: Milenio  Borderland Beat Archives