Deterrence as a strategy in Mexico

Mark Kleiman offers the following thoughts on using deterrence as a strategy in Mexico by focusing all the government resources on the most violent group rather than trying to go after all of the bad guys at once with equal priority:

Mexico should, after a public and transparent process, designate one of its dealing organizations as the most violent of the group, and Mexican and U.S. enforcement efforts should focus on destroying that organization. Once that group has been dismantled ? not hard, in a competitive market ? the process should be run again, with all the remaining organizations told that finishing first in the violence race will lead to destruction. If it worked, this process would force a ?race to the bottom? in violence; in effect, each organization?s drug-dealing revenues would be held hostage to its self-restraint when it comes to gunfire.

There are some practical considerations that make this more difficult than the theory. The state should not choose to avoid investigating or punishing a murder just because it was not committed by the most violent group, so resources can't just be focused on them. It doesn't really get to the rule of law question, reforming police and judicial institutions to keep the groups from rising in the first place. It also encourages "pacting" among the criminal organizations, where they corrupt officials and divide territories among themselves in order to avoid the government's "most violent" list. Finally, it's important to avoid the temptation of working with the other bad guys while taking out the top group, even though taking down that group is the key objective.

All that said, I like the idea. I think it would be an improvement if President Calderon stood up and said tomorrow, "We're changing strategies and we're pulling back resources in other areas so we can destroy the Zetas, the most violent and dangerous of all the criminal groups. After that, we'll focus on the next more violent group." It would be a recognition that the current strategy isn't working and a shaking up of the status quo. Plus it would give the government the focus and resources take down the bastards killing migrants and leaving mass graves in northeast Mexico. Who doesn't want to see that?

Source: http://www.bloggingsbyboz.com/2011/04/deterrence-as-strategy-in-mexico.html

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