Policing on Drugs : The United States, Mexico, and the Origins of the Modern Drug War, 1969-2000

Internationally, although the war on drugs is widely considered a failure, it continues to be deeply entrenched in US diplomacy with partner nations through counternarcotics agreements, continued DEA presence overseas, and the levels of antidrug aid directed abroad. Policing on Drugs writes the history of the drug war from the Mexican perspective, examining how the punitive prohibitive policies that have been enacted by the US government have impacted Mexico and its institutions over time. This bilateral study helps explain how militarized policing came to be the primary approach to policing people and drugs in the second half of the twentieth century.

Today, images of cartels, security agents donning face coverings, graphs depicting egregious murder rates, and military guards at US border crossings influence the world''s perception of Mexico. Mexico''s so-called drug war, as generally conceived by journalists and academics, was the product of recent cartel turf wars, the end of the PRI''s single party rule in 2000, and enhanced US border security measures post-9/11. These explanations are compelling, but they overlook state actions beginning in the 1970s that set the foundation for drug violence over the longer term.In Policing on Drugs, Aileen Teague chronicles a largely ignored but critical prehistory of intensified bilateral antidrug efforts by exploring their origins and inherent contradictions in Mexico. Beginning in the 1960s, US leaders externalized their aggressive domestic drug control practices by forcing junior partners such as Mexico into adopting their policies. Leaders on both sides of the border situated counternarcotics within a larger paradigm of militarized policing, which increased the power and influence of the military and aggressive counternarcotics in both countries. However, different security imperatives motivated US and Mexican agents, complicating enforcement in Mexico. Between 1969 and 2000, Mexico''s embrace of America''s punitive antidrug policies strengthened the coercive capacities of the Mexican state, exacerbated crime, and were so ineffective in an era of open trade blocs that they hastened the expansion of the drug trade.Drawing on such sources as records from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US State Department, interviews with key officials, accounts from Mexican journalists, and rarely seen Mexican intelligence reports, Teague relates the war on drugs as a transnational story with deep historical roots in US and Mexican conceptions of policing and security. The negative impacts of US-led counternarcotics policies in Mexico can be attributed to the complex relationship between the United States'' and Mexico''s shared approach to the drug war--with critical implications for present-day relations.