24hrs of Terror in Culiacán, Mexico

[Borg Refinery]

At least 29 people killed in Culiacán as drug cartel gunmen fight bloody battle to stop transport of El Chapo’s son after arrest

Álvaro Arandas was approaching the check-in counter at Culiacán international airport when the pandemonium began.
“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.

Instead, Arandas found himself scrambling for cover as security forces and cartel gunmen fought for control of an airfield that had become the latest frontline of a Latin American drug conflict that claims tens of thousands of lives every year.
“There was panic … people ditched their bags and their phones, they ditched everything, in order to take shelter,” the 32-year-old remembered of the clashes at just after 8am on Thursday.

Twenty-four hours later, Arandas remained stranded inside the airport, as Mexican troops battled to regain full control of Sinaloa’s state capital after the arrest of one of the country’s most wanted men, Ovidio Guzmán, sparked a day of bloodshed and chaos.

At least 29 people lay dead, including 10 members of the military and 19 alleged cartel shooters, while 35 soldiers were wounded.

And Guzmán, the 32-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was behind bars in Mexico City after the latest bloody chapter in the history of his family’s north-western domain.

 

[sear]

a) 29 dead? YIKES !!

b) Mexico marks grim death toll in long-running drug war - Vatican News
Apr 9, 2021 ... The grim and growing toll of disappeared in Mexico's 15-year-old ongoing drug war has reached 85,000, according to the government.
www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2021-04/mexico-drug-war-85000-victims-governement-report.html

c) In what alternate reality is the death of 85k humans acceptable ?!

If Ukraine wanted to end the War with Russia Ukraine could do so with the stroke of a pen, merely by unconditional surrender, thereby forfeiting the sovereignty, prosperity, and Liberty they have sacrificed for.
If Mexico wanted to end the Drug War it inflicts upon itself Mexico could do so with the stroke of a pen, thereby ending the carnage, strengthening its sovereignty, and converting drug commerce from an enormous $burden into a substantial source of $revenue.

That Drug War persists, along with the carnage and corruption that predictably attends it is not merely an embarrassment, a shame to the policy makers that sustain it. It's a disgrace to humanity that we endure and endorse this ongoing catastrophe in ostensible service to human betterment.

What can we say? The up-side of Drug War if any, perhaps it's a drop or two of chlorine in the human gene pool.

LITERALLY a stroke of a pen can end this !

 

[Borg Refinery]

I think Portugal is a good case study in terms of that, but they had mixed (at best) results.

In any case, one of the other popular activities of the cartels is smuggling people - human trafficking, kidnap/ransom of rich tourists and others as well as drug smuggling to the United States. They make a lot of dough from that. Even if Mexico itself signed such a law as you propose, that would not null out those other things mentioned.

 

[sear]

Even if Mexico itself signed such a law as you propose, that would not null out those other things mentioned.

Unilateral Drug Peace is what I learned in the U.S. military is called "half-stepping".

I agree. To maximize the benefit of Drug Peace it must be global.

And I imagine one the ink is on the paper, and as it's drying, there'll be quite a party.

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion." Thomas Jefferson

I continue to believe self-control is superior to that which is externally imposed. BUT !! Self-control doesn't occur both spontaneously and instantaneously. The intrinsic self-control native to my People was ripped away by the Prohibitionists. It will return, if given adequate conditions.

Part of the reason I do not vehemently approve the relaxation of the marijuana war * is it threatens to extend the duration of the War on the other drugs.
And as you suggest, once the criminal networks are established, diversification is inevitable. First marijuana. Then heroin. Then fentanyl. Then sex slaves.
The idea is to knee-cap the criminal networks entirely. The supply & demand irony of this:
What makes black market commerce so attractive to criminals is the $sky $high prices / $profits.

The result: the prohibitionists are essential business partners to the black-marketeers. Thus prohibitionists are as bad or worse than the "criminals" they make wealthy.

* Most of the 50 States have reportedly legalized or decriminalized marijuana for medical or recreational use.