Drug Cartels and Corruption

I neither speak nor read Spanish, but someone did a translation of this article from 3 August in a Spanish language publication.

OK, so there is probably a certain journalistic hyperbole in this article, but at the center is a very important point.  Drug Cartels will be looking to enter legitimate businesses and take them over, or at least skim money from them.  Corruption breeds corruption.  We can see that in the case of US Prohibition in the 1920s and early 30s.

Mexico, D.F.—During the last 10 years, scores of government officials heading various departments of Petroleos Mexicanos, (PEMEX) have reported the infiltration of narcotraffickers into the workforce and politics and have robbed the company of around 30 billion dollars annually.

Pemex is the principal business of the government, with revenue totaling around 100 billion dollars annually, and is the third largest oil producer in the world. Criminal organizations steal a third of that, according to company figures.

According to the daily newspaper La Opinion, the former Pemex treasurer, Armando Leal Santa Ana, says that since 2002 criminal organizations with the characteristics of narcotraffickers have used enormous amounts of money to corrupt the supply chain to include transporters, watchmen and directors.

This past July 16th, Federal Police arrested five employees of Pemex who were working with the Zetas to steal petroleum products clandestinely in the State of Veracruz where they had skimmed 45% of the production.

Nonetheless, politicians in various states report that the thefts extend into other regions where they have not occurred before, like the States of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Michoacan, and Nuevo Leon.

Francisco Guizar, a Pemex worker from 1974 to 1993, has stolen petroleum products for 20 years, the last 5 of which were under the protection of the Zetas in Veracruz and La Familia in Michoacan, each the enemy of the other.

"It was obvious from the first moment that these criminal organizations were involved in a very lucrative enterprise with little risk," said Samuel Villa, an analyst with the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, "Any other activity would have been more dangerous," he said.

This is not a good thing.

However we come down on illegal immigration we have to be all out in helping Mexico deal with the problem of the drug cartels.  If we don't they will inevitably spread to the US.  The cartels have an insatiable appetite for making money and for taking control of activities that make money.  My Father used to tell me that some day the insurance companies will own everything.  These days I worry that our future may be the drug cartels owning too much of the US.

Regards  —  Cliff