In an apparent attempt to appease President Trump in the hope of averting the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum did four things:
1. Sent 29 Mexican citizens to the United States so that they could be prosecuted for violating America’s drug laws;
2. Sent thousands of Mexican troops to the Mexico-U.S. border, ostensibly to help prevent fentanyl and other drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the United States;
3. Busted several illegal fentanyl operations inside Mexico; and
4. Assured Trump that Mexico was doing — and would continue doing — everything possible to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Trying to appease Trump, however, is the wrong way for Mexico to go. Instead, the best thing Sheinbaum could ever do is declare directly and forthrightly that Mexico will no longer have anything to do with America’s ridiculous, deadly, destructive, and corrupt wars on drugs and immigrants.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Specifically, Sheinbaum and Mexico should take the following three actions:
1. Immediately legalize all drugs, including fentanyl. The war on drugs is the root cause of the massive violence that has encased Mexico for the past several decades. Drug prohibition gives rise to enormous black-market prices and profits, which attract unsavory people who resort to violence to maintain market share. Cracking down on Mexican drug cartels simply aggravates the problem by causing black-market prices and profits to increase even more, which inevitably attracts more unsavory, violent people into the drug trade. There is one — and only one — way to get rid of drug cartels — full and complete drug legalization. That would immediately bring an end to the drug cartels and put Mexico back on the road to domestic peace.
2. Remove all Mexican troops from the Mexico-U.S. border. In fact, remove all Mexican officials from the border, which would enable Mexican citizens to travel to the border and the Mexican borderlands without encountering hardly any government officials whatsoever.
3. Issue a public announcement that states the following: Mexico will no longer assist the U.S. government to win its decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual wars on drugs and immigrants. If the U.S. government persists in continuing to enforce its immoral, deadly, and destructive programs, then it will have to do so on its own. It can no longer count on Mexico to help try to make such programs succeed, especially since Mexico has paid an enormous price in terms of death and destruction trying to appease the United States by enforcing the U.S. government’s foolish programs.
Would an independent approach on the part of Mexico mean that President Trump would then angrily retaliate against Mexico with the imposition of tariffs? Almost certainly, yes. Such being the case, the worst thing Mexico could do is respond with retaliatory tariffs of its own. When one regime adopts foolish and destructive trade policies, it is best to not worsen the situation with retaliatory foolish and destructive trade policies. It is best to just hope that the American people come to their senses and demand that Trump stop such policies.
By adopting a policy of independence and by extricating Mexico from the foolish policies of the United States, Sheinbaum would not only be benefitting the Mexican people, she could also conceivably lead the United States away from its decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual, foolish, deadly, corrupt, and destructive wars on drugs and immigrants. Both Mexico and the United States could then jointly lead the world toward liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony.
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