New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast - Politicians, Cartels, Murders, Oh My!

Politicians, Cartels, Murders, Oh My!

07/11/24 • 33 min

New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

Chris Dalby explains what the Mexican cartels want and how they are getting it.

Politics in Mexico has long been a blood sport: not only “winner takes all,” but also incredibly violent. Last month’s national elections—when the country's first female president won with a record number of votes and by a record margin of victory—demonstrated both trends. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party (founded and still controlled by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador) won huge national and state legislative victories. But the electoral campaign was punctuated by more than 100 political assassinations, as well as widespread kidnappings, forced disappearances, attempted murders, and attacks on family members and campaign staff—all by drug cartels competing for turf, control of markets, and quiescent politicians.

Even worse, this kind of political violence seems to be on the upswing in other parts of Latin America from Central America through the Andean countries and even into Chile. Why? The simple answer seems to be that controlling local, state, and national politicians is good for business—even if that sometimes requires killing those who have other ideas.

Can the cartels be stopped? Is Mexico becoming a narco-state? Is the infection spreading too fast in too many places to be contained?

Answers require a deep understanding of the cartels. That’s where Chris Dalby, an expert on cartel violence, comes in. He is a journalist and founder of World of Crime, which investigates and documents how the cartels operate. Listen as he explains what the Mexican cartels want and how they are getting it.

What do you think: Can Mexico beat the cartels or will the cartels beat Mexico?

Chris Dalby explains what the Mexican cartels want and how they are getting it.

Can the cartels be stopped? Is Mexico becoming a narco-state? Is the infection spreading too fast in too many places to be contained?

What do you think: Can Mexico beat the cartels or will the cartels beat Mexico?

Previous Episode

France Lurches Right

Alice Barbe, a French political and social activist, shares her concerns and expectations for the second round and beyond.

Much to everyone’s surprise, France’s President Macron recently decided that—like much of the rest of the world—his country ought to have national elections this year. The outcome of the first of two rounds was devastating for his political project to govern from the center: Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally party won a bit more than 33% of the vote. A coalition of leftist parties, the New Popular Front, won 28%. And Macron's Centers party again came in third, 22%.

Headlines around described a “landslide” for Le Pen and speculated that the RN might win an absolute majority of legislative seats in the July 7th second round of voting. While that is one of the possibilities, it's not clear, whether it's the most likely one. What does seem clear is that French politics has entered an incredibly volatile, unpredictable, perhaps dangerous period.

Fear of the populist far right is one of the themes coursing through, perhaps defining French politics. Alice Barbe is a French political and social activist who is firmly planted on the left of the political spectrum in her country. Listen as she shares her fears and discusses her expectations for the second round of voting—and the morning after.

What do you think: can right-wing populism be democratic?

Next Episode

Europe’s Shameful Dumping

Europe funds North African countries to dump refugees in the Sahara, raising serious human rights concerns.

It’s not exactly headline news that many countries are inventing all sorts of novel ways to seal their borders from migrants and refugees or, when those efforts fail, to force the uninvited and unwanted to leave. It is news, however, when Europe funds, supports, and encourages governments of countries like Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania literally to dump refugees in the Sahara as either punishment or powerful disincentive for trying to escape to Europe.

Of course, on paper the lucrative deals the EU and individual European governments offer North African countries to stop migrants can be made to sound like humane, sensible solutions to the risks of leaky boats crossing the Mediterranean. But are they?

How are the hundreds of millions of euros paid to transit countries actually used? How are would-be refugees treated? Who assures their safety and survival? Does anyone worry about their human rights, never mind watching out for the kind of corruption that such programs can spawn?

There are answers to those questions, but they aren't pretty. Recently a collaboration of journalists, led in part by the Dutch-based organization Lighthouse Reports, published their conclusions under the headline, "Desert Dump.” May Bulman, Investigations Editor of Lighthouse Reports, summarizes what they learned.

Europe should be ashamed.

Tell us what you think.