Darrell Castle talks about the election of Mexico's new President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his plans to make Mexico great again.

Transcription / Notes

THE USA AS A PRESSURE VALVE

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report.  Today is Friday, August 3, 2018, and on today’s Report I will again turn my attention to the subject of migration and immigration; and because of the recent elections in that country I will look primarily at Mexico.

Why do so many millions of Mexican people want to risk danger and bear the expense and hardship of coming to the United States illegally?  There are many reasons, of course, but the primary reason is most likely the extreme violence, poor living conditions, and lack of opportunity caused by the drug cartels’ decades’ long wars between each other, and with the Mexican and American governments.  It stands to reason then, that the migrants or immigrants must believe that life will be better in the United States than it was in their own country.  If drug cartel violence really is the primary force driving people north then it also stands to reason that if the violence is reduced and the cartels weakened then migration will at least slow down.

On July 1st Mexico elected as President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, by an overwhelming vote.  In a record turnout 53% voted for Mr. Obrador.  News reports coming out of Mexico prior to the election indicated that people were upset at what they considered the impotence of the government of previous President Pena Nieto, along with his total inability to stop or even slow cartel activity. Crime is rampant, especially the crimes of kidnapping and murder, which Mr. Nieto seemed powerless to solve or prevent.

Mr. Obrador will take office December 1st and mission number one will be to insure that he convinces the Mexican people, and especially the business class, that progress will be made against cartel violence.  He says he wants to try innovative solutions, such as reversing the 1938 nationalization of the petroleum industry.  Some other things he wants are to eliminate political immunity and other such privileges to government officials,  as well as including corruption, petroleum theft and electoral fraud on the list of crimes for which there is no bail; moving the Mexican Secret Service to the Department of Defense, thus allowing for a less corrupt way of protecting those trying to defeat the cartels; establishing a right to free public education; establishing an avenue of impeachment of the President similar to the US Constitution; cutting the VAT tax by 50% in the northern border zone.  These things are attacks on corruption and government immunity from it that now chokes Mexico and creates an atmosphere of distrust.

By far, the biggest task before his government is stopping the cartels and regaining control of the country.  He assigned that task to incoming interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero and she says that she has carte blanc authority to try whatever seems necessary to stop the violence, and ending the drug wars is at the top of the list.  Ms. Cordero has some very solid opinions about the drug wars and the damage they have caused.  “What no one can deny with hard data is that, at least in the past 10 years, the Mexican government has been incapable of stopping violence and responding to it with institutional mechanisms.”

Ms. Cordero is seriously considering the decriminalization of all drugs as one of her government’s prime weapons against the cartels.  She believes that making drugs essentially legal would end the black market for production and would end the wars between rival cartels.

The steady increase in violent crime over the past few decades is directly related to the escalation of the war on drugs both in Mexico and the United States.  I’m trying to reason through how legalizing drugs in Mexico would help the United States, since the market for the Mexican drugs is the United States demand.