Negotiations With Cartels Likely Beyond 2012

We have long argued that the most likely outcome of Mexico's drug war is an unofficial truce between the government and the cartels, and recent comments by a former state governor reinforce this view. According to Socrates Rizzo García, governor of Nuevo Leon from 1991-96 under the previous Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) government, security policy was previously based on strategy of assigning each drug cartel its own operating corridor, which prevented the type of violence experienced since the start of President Felipe Calderón's war with the cartels in 2006. While news of an informal agreement with the drug traffickers will not surprise many, it is the implication of Rizzo's comments for future security policy that makes them particularly interesting.

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options: