As Mexican Drug Cartels Grow More Powerful, So Does Mexican Army

ANALYSIS – Should we worry? There is increasing talk in Washington about using American military force against the Mexican drug cartels who now effectively control broad swathes of our southern border.

But what many U.S. lawmakers haven't noticed is that as the cartels have grown more powerful, so has the Mexican Army.

And all this under a populist socialist Mexican president. (RELATED: Mexican President Accuses Pentagon Of Espionage)

As Newsweek reported:

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed while campaigning for office that he would “send the soldiers back to their barracks.” But what Mexico has seen instead during his administration is the military's power grow and expand into unexpected areas.

López Obrador, who is also known by his initials AMLO, not only attempted to replace Mexico's federal police with a new National Guard, but he's put the military in charge of major infrastructure projects such as building a new airport, distributing vaccines and school textbooks, and clearing seaweed from beaches at coastal resorts. Even more consequentially, the military is now tasked with policing migration on Mexico's borders.

If the U.S. did use military force against the cartels, how would the Mexican Army react? Would it help or fight?

And, as Daniel Raisbeck, at the Cato Institute notes, this growing militarization didn't begin with AMLO. Former President Felipe Calderón first began pushing the Army into the fight against the cartels.

Calderón “took out the army from the barracks to fight the drug cartels,” Raisbeck told Newsweek.

The massive profits these cartels have “are so large that they end up being able to arm themselves, almost professionally at the level where they can threaten the state itself.” (RELATED: Drug Cartels Assassinate Presidential Candidate In ‘Once-Safe' Ecuador)

“If you just have civil police forces, they usually don't have the capacity to deal with that,” he said.

So, even if they haven't proven particularly effective, battling the cartels' forces was Calderón's justification for elevating the armed forces. And the United States has mostly been OK with this.

We like to think that the Mexican military is more honest and efficient and can get the job done, so we don't have to go and do it ourselves. (RELATED: Mexican President Says Mexico Is Safer Than US, But Murder Rate Is 4 Times Higher)

And many Mexicans are also OK with the growing Mexican military role since the civil authorities have proven inept and corrupt.

But AMLO has taken it well beyond that mission. And this has serious consequences for the United States. Newsweek added:

Along with the various implications the increased role of the military has on Mexico now, many experts are now concerned about what kind of precedent AMLO has set.

“One of the most serious setbacks for Mexican democracy after AMLO is going to be the question of the militarization of Mexican society,” José Miguel Vivanco, an adjunct senior fellow for human rights at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), told Newsweek.

This militarization will likely become more of a problem when AMLO leaves office in 2024. If the next president doesn't want such a powerful military presence in Mexico, he might find it difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.

If the military sees a new president reducing their privileges or influence, they may push back.

When told by the president to relinquish their power, the military leaders may respond by saying: “You and what army?”

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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