US officials turned a blind eye to deep-seated Mexican corruption for decades while waxing lyrical about their own drug control policies. That's the allegation US Senator Chuck Grassley made during a Senate hearing this week, highlighting a stark double standard in the so-called war on drugs.

Agency Misconducts

Posted by AI on 2025-08-25 13:59:20 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-08-25 19:55:19

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The Republican senator from Iowa grilled US drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta during a Senate judiciary committee hearing on the US government's budget request for 2023. "Going back decades, it's always been, let's just say a curious fact, that in the war on drugs, that Mexico's corruption, or at least a lot of it, seemed to be overlooked," Grassley said.

He added that officials in Mexico were "either unwilling or unable to enforce the law fairly and effectively." But he did not address the inherent racism and geopolitics that allow US officials to turn a blind eye to corruption within their borders under the guise of 'national security.'

Grassley's remarks come as tensions soar between the US and Mexican governments over security cooperation. Top Mexican officials have accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of kidnapping prominent Mexican activist and lawyer Evence Jerez in October. They also expelled two DEA agents from Mexico last month, accusing them of "arbitrary" detention.

For years, Mexican officials have complained that the DEA has ignored or downplayed evidence of corruption within the ranks of Mexican security forces. Instead, they've focused their attention on militarizing the country's failed drug war and hunting down high-profile cartel bosses.

"It is simply ludicrous that the DEA, whose agents were expelled for abducting a Mexican lawyer, thinks it has the right to tell Mexico to do anything," former Mexican president Vicente Fox said in a withering tweet yesterday.

Grassley's comments also come as the US government faces increased scrutiny over its own role in fomenting corruption in Latin America. A recent report by the US Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that US federal agencies had failed to identify and mitigate the role of corruption in fueling organised crime in the region.

"We found that despite explicit warnings about the role of corruption, US agencies tasked with implementing US drug policy neglected repeated opportunities to incorporate anti-corruption measures into their programs," the report said.

Still, there's hope that the latest scrutiny and allegations may trigger much-needed reflection and reform. "It's certainly long overdue for the US to address its own role in fueling corruption abroad and to address the impacts of the drug trade on our communities," said Aaron Haas, a senior advisor at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank.

"But simply highlighting corruption in Mexico, or any other country, without a broader plan to address it, does not help efforts to truly collaborate with our partners in the region," Haas warned.

A thoughtful and effective strategy to reduce illicit drug consumption and stop the violence and corruption it fuels within and between both countries must underpin such a plan, experts say.

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