Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009
America is to blame for Mexico's drug war. Nearly 10,000 people in Mexico have died in drug-related violence since January 2007. Who or what is to blame? Some say it is America’s insatiable consumer demand for illicit drugs and the constant flow of our guns, which arm the cartels. Others believe that Mexico’s own government is ineffective in controlling the trade of the drug cartels because of rampant corruption in law enforcement in the country. The US Congress, unable to ignore the rising violence spilling over the border, has approved $700 million in security aid for Mexico, and has promised hundreds of federal agents and intelligence analysts devoted to the problem. Officials on both sides wonder whether this will make a dent in the problem. Has our own “war on drugs” been ineffective, or even counterproductive? Should Mexico’s government take full responsibility for what goes on within its own borders? Should the very idea of criminalization of drugs be re-examined?
For
Andrés Martinez
Director of the New America Foundation's Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program
For
Jeffrey A. Miron
Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University
For
Fareed Zakaria
Editor of Newsweek International
Against
Asa Hutchinson
Three-Time U.S. Congressman
Against
Chris W. Cox
Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA)
Against
Jorge Castañeda
Former Foreign Minister of Mexico
Moderator
John Donvan
Author and correspondent for ABC News.
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Andrés Martinez
Director of the New America Foundation's Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program
directs the New America Foundation's Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program. He was the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2004-2007, and presided over the newspaper's op-ed page and Sunday opinion section.
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Jeffrey A. Miron
Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University.
is senior lecturer and director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Miron holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T.
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Fareed Zakaria
Editor of Newsweek International
was named editor of Newsweek International in October 2000, overseeing all Newsweek’s editions abroad. The magazine has an audience of over 24 million worldwide. He also writes a regular column for Newsweek, which appears in Newsweek International and the Washington Post.
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Asa Hutchinson
Three-Time U.S. Congressman
has been elected three times to the United States Congress and has been confirmed by the United States Senate both as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and as the nation’s first undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security after the 9-11 attacks.
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Chris W. Cox
Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA)
is the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association of America. Cox oversees seven ILA divisions: Federal Affairs, State & Local Government Affairs, Public Relations, Grassroots, Finance and Administration, Research & Information, Conservation, Wildlife & Natural Resources; as well as the Office of Legislative Counsel.
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Jorge Castañeda
Former Foreign Minister of Mexico
was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003. Castañeda is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Mexican and Latin American politics, comparative politics and US-Mexican and U.S.-Latin American relations.
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2 comments
- Comment Link
Friday, 15 February 2013 09:29 posted by dakota What Kevin says is true. No matter what you do its not going to help anything but cause more drug wars!
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Friday, 13 July 2012 09:58 posted by Kevin koval Keep throwing money at it , but the fact remains drugs are not gong away , even if you fix Mexico someone else will fill the void . 10-20 yrs ago it was Columbia , in the 60's and 70's it was Asia , and even if you could stop all imported drugs ,people will just develop new homebased drugs . I dont know the answer but just throwing trillions of dollars at it isnt going to do anything except maybe a few more of these spectacular marijuana busts that we always hear about. How about a few million dollars to get addicts clean or for education or even something for our kids to do other than hang out idle with no where to go and nothing to do , keep canceling school based sports programs , keep cancelling after school programs , keep building more prisons. In a world where teachers are getting laid off but the D.E.A keeps expanding its no wonder how we got here
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