Barbie Behind Bars!

No, I'm not talking about THAT Barbie, the All-American doll with the impossibly small waist, perky breasts and feet designed for high heels.  I mean Edgar Valdez Villarreal, "La Barbie," a high-ranking figure in the drug world who was captured by Mexican federal police on the outskirts of Mexico City a few days ago.   In a society where only the most macho of men would dare to go by the nickname of a high-fashion doll, La Barbie wears his nickname with pride.  He gets it from his all-American looks, blonde hair, light colored eyes, pale skin.  In fact, he IS an American, in the sense that people in the U.S. use that word.  He was born in Laredo, Texas, and is a citizen of the United States.  He is bilingual and bicultural, a true child of the Border, and he has led his criminal life on both sides of the Rio Grande.

La Barbie represents better than anyone else I can think of the phenomenon of international drug-trafficking.  He has connections all along the East Coast of the U.S., throughout Mexico, and in Colombia.  He's accused of handling a ton of cocaine every week, passing it across the U.S. Mexican border in semi-trailer trucks headed for Atlanta, Georgia, where it's distributed over the Eastern half of the U.S.  The trucks supposedly head back to Mexico loaded with cash, millions of tax-free dollars that fuel the wars between Narco cartels in North and South America.  La Barbie is a wanted man in both Mexico and the U.S.  The U.S. Department of State offered a $2 million reward for his capture, and the Mexican government offered a similar amount.  He's clearly an international criminal of major proportions, and yet his Hispanic last name guarantees that in the popular imagination of people in the U.S., this Barbie is Mexican, and he represents "everything that's wrong with that country."  His U.S. citizenship is easily forgotten.

The Mexican federal police have been doing a pretty good job, all things considered, in capturing drug lords in Mexican territory.  La Barbie is the third major figure brought down in less than a year.  While the media in the US has reported some of these confrontations between criminals and police, there isn't enough context in the reports for people to understand what it means.  Capturing a few drug lords won't put an immediate stop to the drug-related violence in Mexico because the demand for drugs worldwide continues without interruption.  As long as there are billions of dollars to be made from illegal drug business, cartels will continue to fight each other for control of the industry. 

What's clear is that the "drug problem" isn't just a Mexican problem.  Mexico borders a rich and powerful country where drugs are much in demand.    While most Mexicans agree that illegal drugs are bad business, they also know that some people are going to grab an opportunity to get rich, just because the opportunity is there.  In both Mexico and the U.S., there have always been and always will be people who are willing to bend the law to make a fortune.  We don't have to look farther than the history of prohibition in the U.S., when illegal alcohol sales and distribution created a whole new generation of millionaires and gangsters.  We can also see, if we look closely enough, that the illegal drug business in the U.S. has generated a lot of money and a lot of violence over the past 100 years.  And, if we're honest, we'll admit that not everyone involved in the U.S. drug trade has a Hispanic last name.

For the State of Morelos and Cuernavaca in particular, the capture of La Barbie is good news, but people here aren't foolish enough to think that the drug wars are over.  There are others who will probably come in the wake of La Barbie and fight to occupy his place.  But, this is a perfect opportunity for the U.S. to join hands with Mexico to fight the drug trade on both sides of the Border, to make sure that La Barbie, whether he goes to trial in Mexico or in the U.S., will be behind bars for a long time.  It's also an opportunity to educate people in the U.S. about the international scope of the drug trade, to let people know that the violence between rival gangs selling coke on a street corner in Atlanta or Philadelphia or Baltimore and the shoot-outs that occur in Mexico between police and drug lords are all connected.  In capitalist countries like Mexico and the U.S., the market operates through supply and demand.  As long as there's a demand, there's an opportunity to make money, and wherever there's a lot of easy money to be made, there's a potential for violence.  La Barbie may look like a dim-witted thug, but he's smart enough to know that those truckloads of cash are going to buy him whatever he wants, and he's willing to risk everything in exchange for tremendous wealth and power.   La Barbie is a symbol of violence and corruption, but also a model of enterprise and ambition.  He calls himself a "businessman," and in a way, that's exactly what he is.  We can be glad that his business has been shut down for the moment, but let's not pretend that the demand for his product has disappeared.