Under the Shadow Trump Re-ups the Forever Drug War — How US Policy Fueled Mexico's Cartel Crisis
Apr 9, 2026
John Lindsay-Poland, activist coordinating Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico, and Christy Thornton, NYU historian of Latin America, unpack how U.S. policies and weapons flow helped militarize Mexico. They trace decades of security cooperation, the Mérida funding, kingpin strategies, and the violent fallout including cartels’ evolution and cross-border arms trafficking.
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Merida Initiative Fueled Militarized Drug War
- The Mérida Initiative institutionalized US-Mexico security cooperation and coincided with a massive spike in violence and disappearances.
- Between 2007 and 2021 over $3 billion flowed into counter-narcotics programs as militaries were deployed into cities, producing destabilization.
Cartels Work Like Multinational Corporations
- Modern Mexican cartels operate like multinational corporations with compartmentalized subcontractors, not vertically integrated kingpins.
- Christy Thornton notes outsourcing of violence to youth gangs and subcontractors makes the kingpin strategy ineffective.
Drug War Serves As A Pretext For Intervention
- The drug war functions as a political instrument enabling US interventions under the guise of counter-narcotics.
- Thornton calls it a 'get out of jail free card' used to justify force despite decades of failure.
