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Comment by user3939382 | Hacker News Reader

So long as the financial resources of the cartels is in the same neighborhood as Mexican law enforcement, nothing will solve this problem.

I can’t believe that the US with its resources can have a border neighbor in this bad of shape without somehow being to blame at a national policy level.

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I think the resource disparity is exactly the problem. The US/Mexico income disparity ends up distorting the Mexican economy. Mexico's comparative advantage, in an international trade sense, is its long, difficult-to-monitor border with the US, through which drugs & humans can be trafficked.

I suppose there is an argument that the US should try to expand legal, upstanding immigration from Mexico to try to push Mexico more in the direction of being a remittance economy.

Corruption at the levels seen in Mexico is a very, very hard thing to expel from a culture where it’s well-entrenched.

Like trying to being democracy to other countries, no amount of resources and effort will work if the population fundamentally isn’t ready for it.

However, it was pretty easy for the US to topple democracies abroad regardless of the population’s opinions about it.

Indeed it’s easier to destroy than to build.

I think you misjudge the intentions of the US government.

do you really think this is about stopping drugs?

as far as I can tell what they really want is to sell guns (to cartels) and buy the best of the goods (good drugs for good parties?)

I presume every major national policy is fueled by corruption, pay to play, and enriching our politicians, their donors, or both.

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