Log In
Search
Journalist Ioan Grillo joins Emily from Mexico, where he reports on cartels on his Substack CrashOut. Grillo explains what could happen if Donald Trump escalates his immigration crackdown with military operations.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeEnlightening and terrifying in equal measure
It seems the only solution is to legslise and control the production, supply and use of every godamn drug on the market at low cost.. That would bring in vast legal revenue, destroy the cartels and facilitate rehab for drug addicts, all in one felled swoop! If an adult wants to take drugs, let him! Try to educate and support him not to, of course, but it’s his choice.
In my opinion, what prevents this simple, obvious solution is that politicians and law enforcement make too much money on both sides of the border! The Cartels are merely a secondary problem!
Grillo is right on one point, Mexico’s regime is not Cuba or Venezuela. The model of Morena, López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum is the restoration of the old single party presidential dictatorship of the PRI that ruled Mexico for 70 years ending in 2000. Grillo omitted mentioning very ominous developments, like López Obrador’s regime captured and/or dissolved all counterweights to presidential power, which Sheinbaum fully approves. López Obrador also dissolved the Supreme Court and is forcing the reconstruction of the full judiciary into a system based on popular election of all judges that will be controlled by the president in turn. This will make it very hard to win any legal demand without government approval, which will risk the continuation of the free trade agreement with the US and Canada that provides most income to the Mexican government. Sheinbaum received from López Obrador a stagnating economy, multiple structural problems and the army as a powerful player in politics and in running many civil areas (with total opacity). Trump’s demands and tariffs might aggravate and disrupt this fragile situation, with high probability that the Mexican government will no longer be able to afford money transfers to millions of families. This might cause social unrest, with the government asking the army to control protests. A lot of these developments occurred in Venezuela. So, not Venezuela, not yet, but possibly on the move there.