In his 2004 book "DOWN BY THE RIVER" Charles Bowden delves into the events of 1995 surrounding
the murder of a top DEA agent's brother in El Paso. The murder happened the weekend before that agent
was to take over the top DEA post in El Paso. He was called back to that job precisely because the
previous DEA head in El Paso could not keep his mouth shut about the total corruption of the Mexican
government/state police/army/judicial system. The same thing that got our most recent US Ambassador
in trouble! It is a fascinating read that clearly took years to write, with the author familiarizing himself
with hundreds of key people in the process.
I recall particularly the time this new head of the DEA office at Ft. Bliss briefed a visiting Janet Reno
on the situation in Juarez. She obviously knew nothing about it and took furious notes. When she went
back to Washington it was only a few weeks before the investigation was completely shut down. (Too
Sensitive!) There are many great stories within the book but one of the best is the one of how that
DEA agent became so successful in his career... he had put thousands of Mexican drug dealers behind
bars through the use of a single man he met by chance in Arizona and recruited as a double agent. Through
that experience he came to realize how hopeless the drug war was. The combination of corruption
and the drug guys in Mexico simply could not be matched by the DEA. In the end it cost him his brother.
Charles Bowden clearly shows that business interests on both sides of the border played a big part
in keeping this story quiet. The DEA was a complete joke in the war on drugs. Even in 1995 any amount
of drugs could be brought across to El Paso by paying the the right customs people. Nothing has really changed these past 15 years unless it is that the quality is up. As Bowden says.. the drugs still arrive on
time and the quality keeps getting better. Of necessity murder is the price of being a player in the drug
game. You play by the rules or you die. One of the rules is you have to kill them before they kill you. Most
participants use drugs themselves which anyone knows will shorten your lifespan.
The questions asked by the Skeptical Bureaucrat are great ones and timely because Juarez is
essentially dead already. Like Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Gaza, Pakistan, the rapidly
growing younger population of Mexico is uneducated and unskilled. Drugs is by far the only thing
floating the Mexican economy. If you read this great book I think you will enjoy it and conclude as
I did that the drug war was lost about 30 years ago. GWB
PS: "Murder City" his latest book brings things up to date. Just as well written but a lot more depressing.
Thanks for the book reference. I've seen it reported that Charles Bowden knows more than anyone else about the border, and especially Juarez.
ReplyDeleteGWB: I wonder if you have seen this new law, the STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act, which requires public financial disclosures by members of Congress and - and this is the big new thing - also senior executive service officials. It also takes a stab at requiring reports by lobbyists.
ReplyDeletehttp://insidertrading.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004520
One problem - they really need to make disclosure non-public for officials with security clearances (because as it is now, STOCK creates huge security vulnerabilities). But still, Congress has just gone up in my esteem.