Winning the War on Drugs in Mexico? Toward an Integrated Approach to the Illegal Drug Trade

Alfonso Reyes Garcés, Tesis de Maestría, Naval Postgraduate School.

One of the main problems that Mexican authorities face in their war on drugs is the lack of a well-coordinated anti-drug strategy to fight the illegal drug trade. Further, the efforts made by the Mexican government are based on a supply-reduction approach that has proved ineffective both in Mexico and around the world over the last century because it is not aimed at the social roots of the illegal drug trade. Thus, Mexico’s war on drugs has become a never-ending story. This thesis traces this history and then proposes a broader integrated approach based on attacking the roots of the illegal drug trade in Mexico.