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A War Without 'principals'

其他書名	Narco-violence in Mexico
出版	Research Institute for European and American Studies, 2011
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=8go-ngAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Over recent years, drug-related violence in Mexico has featured prominently in international media coverage. Despite the best efforts of the Mexican government, violence levels have continued rising. A military-led offensive of unprecedented intensity and duration has failed to curb the power of drug trafficking organizations. Instead, these organizations have diversified into other criminal activities, such as kidnapping and extortion. With the victims of such crime being ordinary Mexicans, patience with the government and its counternarcotics policy is running low. War-weariness has started to permeate through Mexican society. As part of such an effort to identify alternative approaches, this article traces the evolution of Mexican drug trafficking organizations between 1985 and 2010. It argues that drug-related violence can be viewed as a principal-agent problem, which has thus far been exacerbated rather than moderated by counternarcotics operations. Such operations have created power vacuums within the drug industry, which have become the focus of intense contestation. One way of breaking this cycle of violence might be for the Mexican government to conduct synchronized operations against the two main trafficking organizations: the Sinaloa cartel and its rival, Los Zetas. Between them, these two actors shape the nature of narco-violence either directly or through weaker proxies, who are prone to changing sides. Eliminating or severely weakening both groups simultaneously would deprive the drug trafficking industry of much of its disruptive potential, instead of just facilitating a power shift from one group to another.