U.S. drug policy and Mexican civil-military relations: A challenge for the mutually desirable democratization process

Abstract

As an institution of thegovernment the military has an obligationto be useful to its society. Yet the use ofthe military in an internally oriented drugwar is problematic for any democracy,especially one in transition fromauthoritarianism to democracy. This articleexamines U.S. and Mexican decisions tomilitarize the Drug War in light ofMexico's democratic transition. Itcritiques the Fox administration's relianceon active duty military officers to staffDrug War administrative positions as wellas U.S. promotion of the myth that themilitary has a special ability for fightingdrug production and trafficking.