Mexico-United States Counternarcotics Policy Mexico-United States Counternarcotics Policy Access information: Access and off campus. Description: This collection presents more than 1,800 carefully selected records, tracing U.S.-Mexican counternarcotics cooperation from the Nixon administration through the first term of the Obama presidency. Beginning with Operation Intercept, President Nixon’s unilateral attempt to stem marijuana traffic by closing the Mexico-U.S. border, the set follows the often contentious relationship between the hemisphere’s largest consumer of illegal drugs and a principal producer and transit point for those substances. It chronicles the impact of U.S. drug policy on Mexico-U.S. relations; the infusion of U.S. counternarcotics aid in the form of equipment, training, and joint eradication programs; the transformation of drug control from a law enforcement to a national security concern; the increased role of the Mexican military in drug control; the rise of Mexican cartels, drug violence, and official corruption; and efforts, through the Merida Initiative, to support judicial reform, institution-building, and institutionalization of rule-of-law. This article was published on 2024-08-21
