Will the PRI end the Mexican drug war?

Governor Enrique Peña Nieto is the PRI candidate for President.
Will he end the insane drug war? 

The insane Mexican Drug War   -   47,500 dead in five years

• When the PRI controlled Mexico they allowed the cartels to do business and there was no drug war
• If the PRI wins the race for President will a deal be cut to bring peace? 

The front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race represents a party known for allowing drug-trafficking cartels semi-autonomous control of certain regions during its rule in the previous century.

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The prospect of a victory by Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the July 1 presidential election has troubled U.S. policymakers about drug-control efforts with Mexico.

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Congress has approved about $1.6 billion in drug-war aid to the Calderon administration since 2008.    Initially focused on training police and delivering military hardware, the program is shifting to help Mexico strengthen its justice system says the Washington Times.

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CIA operatives and retired U.S. military personnel also have been sent to an “intelligence fusion center” near Monterrey, Mexico, and officials have said hundreds of drone missions are being flown in support of the war on drug cartels.

Mexican drug war shootout on live TV

The U.S. support, however, represents a fraction of the estimated $45 billion that Mexico has spent on the war under Mr. Calderon, whose administration bankrolled a top-secret $100 million underground bunker and has deployed 45,000 army troops across 18 Mexican states since taking office in 2006.

Debate, meanwhile, has focused on the extent to which the PRI’s resurgent popularity stems from its reputation for having maintained peace in the past by conceding to drug traffickers.

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“It’s well-known that during the PRI’s supremacy in Mexico from the 1940s onward into the 1980s, they kept drug violence at a low and acceptable level by cutting deals with various drug kingpins,” said Hal Brands, a historian and Latin America analyst at Duke University. “The cartels would provide bribes and keep violence to a minimum, and in return, the authorities would turn a blind eye to drug trafficking.”

Brands said it is “unlikely that the PRI would go back to the explicit deal-cutting that you saw in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s,” but public dissatisfaction with the spike in bloodshed over the past five years suggests such tactics may have newfound electoral appeal.

The PRI won a lopsided victory in state-level elections last summer, two months after scores of demonstrators flooded Mexico City to protest the violence that has killed an estimated 47,500 people during the past five years.

(Washington Times)

Gang violence almost vanished overnight when prohibition ended in the United States