I don’t know if President Calderon read my book, but few months later, on September 24, 2012, Mexican president Felipe Calderon, whose term ended on December 1st, 2012, declared at the Council on Foreign Relations:
“ Let’s be honest, I don’t see any [solution] other than the regulation of drugs in the global marketplace, starting here, in the United States.” (“Seamos honestos: no se me ocurre otra que no sea la regulación de las drogas en el mercado global, empezando por aquí, por Estados Unidos”).
Como presidente “tienes la obligación de analizar otras alternativas para parar el flujo de dinero hacia las manos de los criminales”, reconoció Calderón. Eso incluye “alternativas de mercado”, añadió, sin dar más detalles. “La otra es entregar el poder del Estado. Pero no puedes decir eso como gobierno”, dijo.
Coincidence?
It is worth remembering that Calderón himself initiated the militarization of the fight against drugs in Mexico.
Calderon also lamented the 60,000 deaths caused by his own militarization of the fight against narco-trafficking. Where was he for the past 6 years? Will Calderon join the very exclusive but fast-growing club of retired heads of states asking for drug policy reform? As it seems that his market approach epiphany dates back to 2011 at least, one wonders why he didn’t act on it while he was in position to do so.
