Opinion | Drug Cartel Control Is Not Peace

MEXICO CITY — Parents hugged their children behind locked doors of nurseries while gunshots rang out on the streets. Men with Kalashnikovs and burning trucks blocked key roads and access to the airport. Fifty-one inmates including murderers and kidnappers broke out of jail. To avoid more bloodshed, the Mexican government ordered the release of Ovidio Guzmán López — son of the convicted drug kingpin Joaquin Guzmán, known as El Chapo — who had been indicted in the United States for drug trafficking and captured by Mexican government forces. Cartel gunmen had taken to the streets in response to Mr. Guzmán’s arrest.

As these events unfolded in the city of Culiacán in the state of Sinaloa on Thursday, they were broadcast live on TV and social media, raising fears about a failure in the security strategy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Some people were relieved the official death toll that night was only eight, although several more corpses were found on Friday. But the Sinaloa cartel won, the government capitulated to its terror, and gangsters continue to have a level of control in swaths of the country.

On Friday, President López Obrador defended the decision to give in to the cartel’s demand to release Mr. Guzmán, saying it avoided a massacre. “You can’t fight fire with fire … We don’t want deaths. We don’t want war,” he said. “With justice, we will guarantee peace and tranquillity in the country.” The problem is that his government is absolutely not guaranteeing peace and tranquillity, and violence rages daily.

The call to set Mr. Guzmán free in the midst of the fighting was a tough decision. Cartel thugs even attacked a military family unit, putting the lives of officers’ children at stake. Other soldiers were reportedly held at gunpoint. There is a valid debate about the proper response to a hostage situation.

But the decision sends a message that cartels will be allowed to use violence to get their way. The Mexican security forces fumbled the operation from the start, arresting a top Sinaloa cartel suspect without enough backup to secure the area. And President López Obrador needs to forge a coherent strategy that provides a basic protection for citizens while tackling the deeper problems behind the violence.

Mr. López Obrador won his election last year thanks in part to his calls to end decades of corruption and uplift the poor. He rightly railed against the bloodshed and poverty that make people flee their homes, saying Mexico yearned for peace. Yet almost a year into office, homicide rates continue at record levels of more than 3,000 a month, while there are horrific incidents like gunmen ambushing and killing 13 police officers in the state of Michoacan last week.

I have been one of many voices criticizing the war on drugs and its catastrophic effects on Mexico. But the answer is not to give in to drug cartels, who can hold a major city and its residents under siege. The idea of drug policy reform, legalizing some drugs and providing better treatment for addicts, is to reduce the resources going to cartels and stop their rule of terror.

The problem in Mexico over the past decade is not only that the government has cracked down on traffickers by burning opium and marijuana fields. It is also that the cartels have used their billions to build paramilitary forces that lay waste to chunks of the country. It is not just a war on drugs but also a war financed by drugs. And that war does not stop even if the government is not attacking them.

Mr. López Obrador rightly points out that he inherited this problem. Reporting here since 2001, I have covered many dark days of this conflict: the massacre of 72 migrants; the disappearance of 43 students; cartel gunmen shooting down a military helicopter; a mass grave with more than 250 skulls. Yet that does not excuse him from the need to confront this humanitarian crisis.

The president appears to be struggling to win support from all his security forces. He created a new National Guard to bolster troops, but many of its members are occupied stopping Central American refugees and migrants from reaching the United States. Federal police officers blockaded streets in protest against being forced to join the National Guard, saying they would lose pay and benefits. And Mexican media outlets reported that elements in the army were unhappy with the outcome of Thursday’s debacle in Culiacán.

President López Obrador needs to rally support from his forces and send out a clear message that criminal groups cannot ambush and murder them. He needs these forces to reduce the homicide rate and stop armed criminals from openly taking control of city centers. At the same time, his government could lead a more coherent plan for drug policy reform; there is already a smattering of bills in Mexico’s Congress on the issue. And the government can press on with worthy social programs to steer young people from crime.

The United States also bears responsibility for this bloodshed. Between 2007 and 2018, more than 150,000 firearms seized in Mexico were traced to U.S. gun shops and factories. If serious American gun reform happens in the coming years, lawmakers should also listen to the gunshots over the Rio Grande.

Reducing Mexico’s body count is a herculean task. But if politics is for anything, it should be to save lives. Just talking about justice does not stop bullets; cartel control is not peace.

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