The Drug Trade in Mexico, A Transnational Problem

In this article, Omar Hurtado and Rosa Ma. García discuss the drug trade in Mexico, one of the harder organized criminal activities to control and a major source of concern for the Mexican government, given its political, economic, social and military implications, which have the potential to undermine national security. The problem looks set to remain with us, at least in the short to medium term, in light of the failure of efforts to stamp out drug production and combat “money laundering”, compounded by high consumer demand in the United States and gunrunning between the latter and the Mexican cartels. Furthermore, it will be a long time before Mexico’s legal and security institutions are equipped to address the problem, say the authors, who believe a unilateral approach and local policies are not sufficient to combat the drug trade and associated criminal activities, which, due to their transnational nature, require regional and multilateral cooperation.