INSIDE MEXICO'S DRUG CARTEL UNDERWORLD

MEXICO CITY - Journalist Ricardo Ravelo has been covering drug
trafficking for more than a decade for Proceso, Mexico's leading
weekly news magazine.

He is the author of several books on the drug trade. His latest,
"Herencia Maldita" ("Cursed Inheritance"), published in May, provides
a detailed look at the roots of the current drug war, which has left
more than 1,000 dead so far this year.

Ravelo dedicates the book to murdered journalists. As many as 30 have
been slain since 2000, making Mexico the second-deadliest country for
journalists, after Iraq.

Excerpts from an interview with Ravelo:

American-Statesman: The fight over drug trafficking has generally been
described as a battle between the Gulf Cartel (headquartered along the
Texas border) and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Ravelo: The war for the market in Mexico is actually being disputed by
seven cartels, which have established alliances in recent years. The
strongest groups are from the state of Sinaloa and the Gulf. What these
two groups want to do is impose their hegemony throughout the country,
from the harvest and the production to the trafficking and, of course,
the market.

Why has the fight gotten so violent in recent years?

The Gulf Cartel began to recruit soldiers, many of whom had deserted
the armed forces, and this paramilitary ingredient has created ever
more violence, as opposed to previous years when the rules of the drug
game were very clear and were respected.

The incorporation of the state police as a wall of protection is also
a cause of violence. Many of the executions we've seen, especially in
the last two years, have been targeted at police. . . . It's now clear
that the police don't just protect, but they also commit executions
and kidnap people.

What do you think of President Felipe Calderon's strategy of sending
in the military to confront the cartels?

What we're seeing in Mexico is a faithful copy of what happened in
Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s when there was a struggle to
eliminate the cartels of Cali and Medellin. Even though this was
accomplished, what's also certain is that by mobilizing the army, the
extraditions (of drug bosses to the United States) and all the deaths
in Colombia, the fight against drug traffickers was a failure because
Colombia currently has more drugs and more trafficking activity than
it did in that era.

If I could give an image, it would be that the Mexican government is
spraying with a shotgun instead of shooting with precision. The
strategy is focused on the streets . . . but not against money
laundering or arms trafficking.

How long will the violence continue? Until the cartels realize it is
bad for business?

At some point will come the stage of negotiation . . . perhaps when
the government takes back the control it lost during the last
presidential term (of Vicente Fox). . . . But there is an even worse
element, that in some towns and villages the government can't even
collect taxes because the narcos have taken over everything: They
control the fields, the businesses, they have the political power,
they impose mayors. For the government, that's a very dangerous
symptom of how far drug trafficking has permeated in some places.

In your book, you call El Chapo (Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa
Cartel) the "pampered one." Why?

He escaped from the Puente Grande prison in the last presidential term
in a truly spectacular move, and they haven't been able to stop him
since. He's been free to build piece by piece what is now known as the
Sinaloa Cartel. On three occasions, he was on the verge of being
arrested, which gives me the impression that he is someone (the
government) doesn't want to stop. It's not possible that one man is
defying the entire military and police apparatus. . . . It's becoming
clear that the police are basically divided: 50 percent working for
the narcos and another 50 percent giving a very incomplete battle, in
which police in some states complain they are only given six bullets a
day to fight the cartels.