IS MEXICO’S DRUG WAR A CIVIL WAR?
By Allan Wall
June 22, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
The
ongoing struggle between the Mexican government and the drug cartels
– and the struggles between and within the cartels themselves
- is a war.
It’s not a conventional war in the classic imagination, of two
armies facing each other on a large plain. But then, most wars today
aren’t like that anyway.
Most wars today involve small unit tactics, close quarter combat, ambushes,
checkpoints, uncertainty, and alternating periods of quiet punctuated
by surprise attacks. As in Iraq, where I served a tour of duty, the
fighting in Mexico varies greatly by region and locality, with its ups
and owns .
Could the Mexican drug war be classified as a civil war?
According to the Correlates of War, an academic project studying the
history of warfare, a conflict must have over 1,000 casualties per year.
Since over 4,000 Mexicans have been killed since December of 2006 (plus
the injuries), then Mexico’s Drug War would qualify by casualty
count as a civil war.
The classic definition of a civil war though is "a violent conflict
within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at
the center or in a region, or to change government policies."
In that sense, the Mexican Cartel War does not exactly fit the definition.
But then, the American Civil War might not either, since the Confederacy
wasn’t trying to take over the North, but to secede from the U.S.
Advertisement
In
today’s Mexico the drug cartels are not trying to officially install
themselves in Mexico City. They just want to control their drug smuggling
routes and will take on anybody, including the government, who stands
in their way.
The official U.S. military definition of a civil war is
“A war between factions of the same country; there are five criteria
for international recognition of this status: the contestants must control
territory, have a functioning government, enjoy some foreign recognition,
have identifiable regular armed forces, and engage in major military
operations.”
Let’s look at each of the five criteria:
1. “The contestants must control territory.” The Mexican
drug war is sometimes called a “war for territory.” But
they aren’t fighting for territory in the sense of owning property,
or of carving out an official political entity. Cartels fight their
rivals for control over smuggling routes. They aren’t interested
in governing their turf in the same sense as a mayor or governor, they
don’t care about political ideology. Their goal is to protect
their routes, sources and alliances, and sometimes to muscle in on the
other cartel’s turf, and they will kill anybody who stands in
their way.
2. “The contestants must have a functioning government.”
A drug cartel does have a government of sorts, an internal chain of
command, which, given its goals, functions rather efficiently. Of course,
a drug baron can never relax, being under constant threat from the government,
rivals and would-be-rebels in his own organization.
3. “The contestants must enjoy some foreign recognition.”
No foreign government officially recognizes a Mexican drug cartel. Nevertheless,
cartels have plenty of international connections, having spread their
tentacles into South America, and north into the U.S.
4. “The contestants must have identifiable regular armed forces.”
The cartels don’t have “regular” forces in the same
sense of an organized national military. But they are organized, and
the cartel “soldiers” (some of whom are defectors from the
regular Mexican army) do function quite efficiently to carry out the
goals of their organization.
And
they sometimes do dress in a recognizable manner and are thus “identifiable”
to those in the know.
5. “The contestants must engage in major military operations.”
The drug cartels are well-armed, and do engage in operations against
the government forces and other cartels.
So
even when we look at Mexico’s situation in light of the 5 criteria,
it raises more questions than it solves.
The Mexican situation has plenty of other complications. Widespread
corruption in Mexico facilitates the cartels’ power. And high
demand for drugs in the U.S. provides most of the cartels’ funding.
In Mexico, drug profits have made their way into legitimate businesses,
politicians and even the coffers of the Catholic Church.
|
Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts! |
So is Mexico in the midst of a Civil War, or does it depend upon one’s definition of a civil war? Or is it something even more complicated and difficult to resolve?
