“We cannot depend on Mexico”: Former Ambassador Landau criticized the US anti-drug strategy

After several weeks of going unnoticed, the former United States ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, returned to give what to talk in social media. But this time it was not to promote the culture and tourism of the country, but to criticize the fight against drugs of the president Joe Biden‘s government.

Through his Twitter account, this Saturday afternoon he regretted that the drug use is increasing in the American Union, as well as that the only option is trust the mexican authorities to dismantle the drug cartels.

“Drug use and overdoses are skyrocketing in the US, and we don’t have a national strategy to address the crisis other than asking Mexico to prosecute and extradite the drug lords.”

And it is that he took the opportunity to share your collaboration article for the portal The Arizona Republic, published this June 11 and under the title “We can target all the drug lords in Mexico that we want, but that is a losing strategy.”

He highlighted the fact that “the US registered more than 81 thousand deaths from drug overdoses in the 12 months that ended in May 2020, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a period of 12 months”.

Although he wrote that as ambassador he urged the Mexican government to adopt a more proactive stance to intercept the flow of illegal drugs and hold those responsible accountable, “the United States cannot depend on Mexico, or from any other foreign country, to solve our drug problem”.

Regarding the current ways of solving the problem, he indicated that “the main objective is to catch the bad guys and bring them to justice. While that goal is obviously laudable, it cannot be the basis of our national strategy against drug trafficking. There are two problems with the approach, one practical and the other conceptual”.

Regarding the first, he said that “most of the cartel leaders live in Mexico, so their apprehension and prosecution necessarily depend on the actions of the Mexican government”.

Marijuana seizure in an irregular place in San Diego, California.

He continued: “In any case, it is not at all clear that the police and judicial institutions of Mexico are up to the task. The failed attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzmán, son of the convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in October 2019, underlines the challenge”.

On the approach he stressed that “at a deeper level, catching and testing drug lords will not significantly affect the supply of illegal drugs.”

However, he clarified that “none of this suggests that the United States and Mexico should not work together to apprehend key figures in the illegal drug trade and bring them to justice. The cartels represent a serious danger for both countries and we share a common interest in eradicating them.”

The former ambassador also stressed that “the United States cannot outsource its counter-narcotics strategy to Mexico. Any strategy that defines success in reference to the efforts of another country is doomed to fail. The United States must have control over the implementation of its own strategy, which requires a renewed focus on efforts within its own borders”.

General Salvador Cienfuegos was exonerated after Mexico requested his extradition from the US.

Therefore, he highlighted education and prevention “particularly in American schools”.

Landau also addressed that “United States law enforcement must attack the American roots of the power of the Mexican cartels: money and guns”.

He concluded that “with hundreds of Americans who overdose every day, the United States cannot afford to put the fate of its counter narcotics strategy in foreign hands.”