The tradeoff between security and human rights in Mexico: the situation during Calderón’s ’war on drugs’

The rise of drug-related violence which Mexico has experienced since 2007 has attracted a lot of attention worldwide. The rise of violence is related to the administration of president Felipe Calderón, which term of office began in December 2006. Although the violence within Mexico was already at a high level to begin with, the level of violence increased even further under his government. This was due to his ‘war on drugs’ which he launched immediately after his inauguration on the first of December. This meant an extremely militarized approach, in an attempt to diminish the activities of the drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) heavily present in the country. While the final goal of the president was to limit the extent of the drug cartels to such a degree that it would no longer be a threat to Mexican national security, but instead a problem for the country’s law enforcement, the Calderón administration failed severely in accomplishing this. This has also been illustrated by the...Show moreThe rise of drug-related violence which Mexico has experienced since 2007 has attracted a lot of attention worldwide. The rise of violence is related to the administration of president Felipe Calderón, which term of office began in December 2006. Although the violence within Mexico was already at a high level to begin with, the level of violence increased even further under his government. This was due to his ‘war on drugs’ which he launched immediately after his inauguration on the first of December. This meant an extremely militarized approach, in an attempt to diminish the activities of the drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) heavily present in the country. While the final goal of the president was to limit the extent of the drug cartels to such a degree that it would no longer be a threat to Mexican national security, but instead a problem for the country’s law enforcement, the Calderón administration failed severely in accomplishing this. This has also been illustrated by the Conflict Barometer, composed by the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK), which classified Mexico’s armed conflict as an ‘intrastate war’ in 2010, which raised the level of conflict intensity from 4 to 5 (Lier 1). The focus of this paper will be the trade-off between security and human rights during the Calderón administration. With the government’s approach to enforce security in the country, they have increased both the levels of violence within the country, with disastrous results for the human rights situation in the country with not only the DTOs as perpetrators, but also the Mexican government. This paper will research whether the human rights violations by the governments can be allowed to ensure Mexican national security regarding the DTOs, and look into the factors which have influenced this. This will be accomplished by firstly establishing a theoretical framework for further understanding of the paper, followed by giving a historical context of the security issue within Mexico. For this will be looked to the period between 1970 and 2006, which should allow a clear understanding of the former authoritarian regime which is due to the recent transition to electoral democracy, extremely relevant to the security issues Mexico experienced under the Calderón government. Subsequently, it will also look into the policies related to the DTOs conducted by the governments before Calderón came into power and how these were influenced by external actors. This second chapter will also analyze the human rights situation under the authoritarian regimes before the careful transition to democracy in 2000. Naturally, both the earlier policies regarding the DTOs, and the human rights situation during earlier de Rijk 3 Mexican governments have strongly influenced the situation the Calderón government was dealing with, making it also extremely relevant to the trade-off between security and human rights during the ‘war on drugs’. The third chapter will look into the actual Calderón administration, and thoroughly analyze the policies employed during Calderón’s term of office and the human rights situation influenced by this, in order to finally make an extensive conclusion regarding the balance between security and human rights between 2006 and 2012.Show less

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The tradeoff between security and human rights in Mexico: the situation during Calderón’s ’war on drugs’