ABSTRACT
Organized international crime exerts its most powerful influence in Mexico through drug trafficking. Transnational syndicates and local organizations involved in the production, transportation, and distribution of illicit drugs have engaged in large-scale corruption of public officials, fostered waves of brutal violence, created nearly autonomous territorial fiefdoms, and openly flouted the rule of law. Soon after taking office in December 1994, President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León received an official report warning that “The power of the drug-trafficking organizations could lead to situations of ungovernability…. [T]he advance of drug-trafficking promotes impunity and uncertainty in [public] institutions, justifies violence, and increases intimidation of the authorities.”1 For all these reasons Zedillo, like his predecessors, has proclaimed that drug trafficking represents a paramount threat to Mexico’s national security.
